Fate: Zero Hope
by Joki Boi
Summary: Everything was going as planned when Angra Mainyu was finalizing the Servant choices for the Fourth Holy Grail War. That is, until a certain Wizard Marshall got himself involved...
1. The Marshall Interferes

**Hello everyone! It's been a while, yes it has. I'm sorry for not updating my other stories, I've just been debating how to continue the story along, plus I'm just plain lazy.**

**But for this story I'm truly inspired. I don't expect to have any regular schedule (If I make one then I'll never finish this), but I do know that this is one that I've been really wanting to write, for over a year now in fact.**

**Yes, this is one of those stories where you replace the Servants with characters from other series. Mine will be pretty much anime characters. Though two Servants will stay the same.**

**For the characters from the series I use, you should note that I may drop major spoilers for the series which they are from. Plus, this will totally spoil Fate/Zero, but that comes with the territory. I'm only posting this note here. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

**Disclaimer: Fate/Zero and all the stories and references and stuff in here belong to their respective owners. TIM came up with the idea for this story first, and is mildly responsible for me even writing this story in the first place. TIM, you're great. (I hope you don't mind all of these people making their own versions of your own story. Would these be considered fan-fanfiction?)**

**All right! Let's go!**

Chapter I: The Marshall Interferes

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><p>(Throne of Heroes)<p>

Angra Mainyu.

The Zoroastrian God of Evil. The Servant Avenger of the Third Holy Grail War. The embodiment of All the World's Evil. Currently, the corrupt conscience of the Grail.

Now, he had been stuck in the Grail for 60 years. Normally, under these circumstances, one would think that he would be incredibly bored, just sitting around and waiting.

Angra Mainyu was anything but bored. Due to essentially being the Grail, he had access to the Throne of Heroes. As such, he had spent a large majority of his time wandering its seemingly endless expanses, learning of and recounting the Legends of countless Heroes.

Joan of Arc. Alexander the Great. Jack the Ripper. King Arthur. Napoleon Bonaparte. Simo Häyhä. Karna. Vlad the Impaler. General George S. Patton. He had gone through hundreds, thousands, but he knew that he was not done. Not even close.

After all, the Throne contained Heroes of the Past, Present, and Future, there were practically infinite members of the Throne.

Plus, he was close. The Grail had been gathering energy over the years, and it was almost time to give out Command Seals to the lucky Masters-to-be. He had already selected who they would be. Plus, he had their Heroic Spirits of choice ready. Most already had their artifacts prepared, and so he already knew their capabilities and prepared himself accordingly for when he would attempt to break out this time and destroy the world. The only one up to chance was Caster; nobody yet had prepared a catalyst for the Servant of the Spell. Still, he was worried. The Servants this time were quite powerful, he was unsure if he would be able to take a few of them on.

"King" Arthur was surely an interesting one, being incredibly famous and with quite the Legend behind her. Angra Mainyu was incredibly nervous about potentially having to face her, especially with that ridiculously overpowered Avalon Noble Phantasm.

Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes. Most definitely the single most powerful Servant whose Legend Angra Mainyu had gone through. The Tohsaka magus was definitely smart in choosing him. Even Angra Mainyu knew that in a straight fight he would have absolutely no chance. Even if he survived the Gate of Babylon, he was a God, and so the Enkidu chain would totally defeat him.

Iskandar the Conqueror was not as powerful as the two aforementioned, but he was still an incredibly potent threat. Both of his Noble Phantasms would be hard-pressed to be conquered. He would have to be taken out quickly, before he could call upon his Reality Marble.

Diarmuid of the Love Spot and Lancelot of the Round Table, while both worthy of being upon the Throne, were those that, he could tell, against the opposition would fall. They weren't even considered as potential victors.

The Hassan, with careful planning, could be the last one standing. Angra Mainyu felt that he would either skulk around and take out Masters or just hide until there were very few left. Trying to involve himself in combat would be tantamount to suicide. But Angra Mainyu was fairly confident that he would be able to defeat him. He had learned all of the various Hassan members' abilities, after all, it was guaranteed that a Hassan would be an Assassin, they were the word's origin.

Little did he know, but almost all of his careful planning and research was about become completely worthless.

"Hoho! I have finally reached it! The fabled Throne of Heroes!" A man suddenly appeared from nowhere, with a faint, audible popping sound. Angra Mainyu was as close to being shocked as an entity of coalesced evil could be. As the Grail, he sensed the Heroes; nobody should have been able to just sneak up on him like that. No matter how fast, he should have had some feeling of one getting closer. Even still, Angra Mainyu couldn't sense the man. He didn't even recognize him. Something was off here.

"Hmmm. It's plainer than I expected," the man was elderly, but gave off the aura of a man with still many years ahead. He had grey short-cut hair along with a beard and red eyes. He wore a black military-like outfit, with white bordering a seam in the middle. Over this was a black cloak.

The man, after observing his surroundings for a few moments, noticed Angra Mainyu and approached him. "Why hello there. Neat little place this is, the Throne of Heroes. I'm gonna guess that you're the one in charge?"

He sensed an aura of intense power from this man. He was not to be underestimated. While he couldn't truly be killed in the Throne, no member could, he still gauged the man warily. "…Yes. Who are you?"

The man smiled, not unkindly, yet not kindly either. "I am known as Zelretch. I assisted with the creation of the Heaven's Feel ritual." Angra Mainyu's eyes narrowed. He was right, this man was not to be looked over. "Hell, they still use my name in the standard summoning chant."

"And what are you doing here, Mr. Zelretch?" Angra Mainyu decided to be diplomatic, this man was at least partially responsible for the creation of the ritual, he may have had some means of stopping it permanently. Angra Mainyu would not stand for such an act.

"What? I can't be in the Throne of Heroes?" All he got was a continued stare. "Sheesh. Fine, fine. I just used the Second Magic and finally made my way here." Zelretch too was acting in caution. He didn't remember the Grail having a higher conscious. Something had either gone very wrong, or very right. "Besides, I would've ended up here anyway, saving the world from the Crimson Moon and all."

"If you would've been here 'eventually', why have I not seen you before? The Throne collects Legends of the Past, Present, and Future. Even if in reality you are not dead, you should still have a representation here."

Zelretch shrugged his shoulders and gave a noncommittal grunt. "I dunno." There were a lot of mysteries about him, not even he knew the answer to them all. Angra Mainyu shook his head and sighed. He could at least tell that the man wasn't lying. "So… whatcha doing?"

Angra Mainyu had the sense that the man already half-knew, but was testing him for some as-of-yet unknown purpose. He decided to answer honestly, "I am currently finalizing the choices for Heroes to duel in the upcoming Holy Grail War."

"Ah, yes, it should be around that time again." Truth be told, Zelretch couldn't really care less about the Holy Grail War. He didn't really have any wish which needed to be granted, he really only helped because Nagato had asked him to. He wondered how the Tohsakas were doing with those blueprints.

Zelretch stopped himself right there. He couldn't dwell on the past, it had happened and there was nothing to do about it. "And how is that going?"

"Fine." Angra Mainyu had no reason to lie. He may have been the embodiment of evil, but that did not mean that he would just lie, especially to an individual as powerful as this Zelretch. He could tell that this man would make for an incredible Caster when his time came to join the Throne. Speaking of… "The choices for all of the Servants aside from Caster have been accounted for."

"I see." Zelretch delved deep into his memories, recalling all he could on the Holy Grail War. He was probably rusty, but he still remembered the seven primary classes. He suddenly thought up an idea. "Hey, can I choose the Servants?"

"What?" Angra Mainyu was not expecting such a question. "But the selected Masters have already prepared the artifacts of the Servants they wish to summon." He didn't just want to outright say 'No' to the man's face.

"Bah! I say one who deserves to win the Holy Grail should be one who can adapt to unexpected situations! If they lose just because they planned for a different Servant, then they were obviously never qualified in the first place."

Angra Mainyu saw Zelretch's point and found himself agreeing. Besides, it would be interesting to see what the user of the Second Magic thought would be a worthy Servant. "Very well. What do you have in mind?"

"May I observe the selections the Masters have made beforehand?"

"Of course." Angra Mainyu gestured to the wall, and, similar to a video game, seven boxes popped up, each labeled a certain class name and each containing a Servant's image and various attributes, such as Master, origin, gender, etc. The box labeled Caster was merely a large question mark.

Zelretch took a few minutes to look over all of the choices. He smirked a bit at seeing a Tohsaka as a Master, and let out a whistle at his Servant of choice. 'Damn, Nagato, your descendants have got guts.'

After a tad bit longer, he shook his head ruefully. "Bah! Boring and predictable. Do magi of today truly have such stale imagination? No wonder more Magic hasn't been discovered!" He turned back to Angra Mainyu, "I say we change the lot of them! Well, Archer can stay." Even thought it wasn't Nagato himself, he still carried a bit of a soft spot for the family of his most successful pupil. At the very least he could let him keep the Servant of his choice.

"Saber is just your standard honor-bound white knight; Lancer is very much the same. Rider's the kind of guy who'll just start inspiring everyone around him and creating new memes by the second. Berserker is 'The Black Knight.' Oh, scary. And Assassin… well, I can't blame them for summoning him, he's really the only choice. But still, he must've been in the past wars too if he's the only option, and that makes it kind of boring."

"Very well," Angra Mainyu truly didn't mind the changes. He was actually eager to see who Zelretch chose. Who could it be? Beowulf? Buddha? Jesus Christ? Gary Gygax? H.P. Lovecraft? Countless options to choose from. But first…

"Though I would like to request that Saber remain the same." King Arthur was one of the more powerful members of the Saber class, and so would have a good chance of victory. Also, she had a high likelihood of being corrupted by his evil and actually becoming an asset to him, the highest chance out of all of the pre-selected Servants in fact.

"That can be agreed to. Now, how do you go about selecting one?"

"Well, just come into contact with me and imagine their name, appearance and class and just… will it to happen." It was a bit hard to explain. "Though they will have to genuinely be qualified for the class in the first place."

"Heh, name and appearance, sorta like Death Note." At Angra Mainyu's confused look, he shook his head. "Never mind, I'll tell you about it later or something." Zelretch approached Angra Mainyu and placed his hand on his shoulder. Zelretch closed his eyes and thought deeply, before manipulating the Second Magic, hoping that his experiment would work.

"What? Who are these? I don't recognize any of these Heroes!" And from what the confused voice from his new associate told him, he had succeeded.

He looked onto his five selections. "These are Heroes from Alternate Universes which I have linked to ours with my Kaleidoscope. Trust me, they'll be much better than what the summoners originally wanted. These ought to make things a lot more interesting. Think of it, Servants with no history to be researched. No preemptive preparations to be made. This will truly test those magi who would wish to win the Cup of Christ!" While the Holy Grail of these wars wasn't really Jesus' cup from the Last Supper, it was still a fitting analogy.

Angra Mainyu smiled. "Yeah, I guess you're right." As he set about making the preparations to summon these Servants, he noticed Zelretch looking at some extra blank windows beyond the seven classes already chosen. Angra Mainyu decided to humor the man's curiosity. "Those are extra classes in case some special circumstances were met."

"Oooooooh," Zelretch sounded like a giddy grade-schooler. "I say that my presence is a 'special circumstance.' After all, without me this whole ritual would have never existed!"

"Very well," Angra Mainyu didn't see why not. Really, he only cared about the victor. Plus, this would give him an even greater chance of escape. "Though please restrict it to only two additional classes." The Grail System didn't operate on infinite amounts of prana after all.

Zelretch went through the list of possible additional classes. He looked up, "Really? There's a Shielder class?" Angra Mainyu shrugged. "Okay, well I would like to select the Avenger and Saver classes."

"That can be arranged. Just do it like you did before." Zelretch repeated the process of selecting a Servant and, just like before, there was no problem with them filling their slots.

He looked to the Saver, "Perhaps I'm being a tad bit cruel, but oh well… we'll see how this all turns out." He turned to Angra Mainyu, who was observing all of the new Servants' profiles with interest. "So now what?"

"Now we wait until they're summoned. And then we watch the fireworks."

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(Abandoned Warehouse, Docks, Fuyuki City, Three Weeks Prior to the Holy Grail War)

Kirei Kotomine looked down at and inspected his summoning circle, noting it to be in perfect condition. He held his arm out and prepared to begin the lengthy chant, observing the markings on his hand.

He didn't really know why he was doing this. He had no wish for the Holy Grail himself, he was just doing it to assist his teacher in his goal to find Akasha, the Root of Knowledge. The Church assisted Tokiomi Tohsaka because, out of all Masters, he was the one who could be trusted the most. As such, for three years Kirei trained under him as a magus, entering a world he thought he would only encounter in the midst of combat.

But what everything came down to was the fact that Kirei himself didn't have a wish. Or maybe he did and he just wasn't aware of it. Perhaps the Grail itself wanted Tohsaka to win, and he was selected for the express reason of not having a wish.

Kirei shook the thoughts away. Regardless, the Command Seals on his hand affirmed his participation in the new war. He could find his answers later. It was still a few weeks until the Grail War proper was to begin, but he decided to summon early and make sure that he would be the one to claim the Assassin class Servant. Tokiomi's plan largely relied on it.

He began the chant…

"_Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time._

_Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation. Let my great master Schweinorg__ be the ancestor. Rais__e a wall, against the wind that shall fall. Close the four cardinal gates. Come out from the crown. Rotate the three-branched road reaching the Kingdom._

_I shall declare here. Your body shall serve under me. My fate shall be with your sword. Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail. If you will submit to this will and this reason… then answer!_

_An oath shall be sworn here! I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven. I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell! – From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, Protector of the Balance!_"

His catalyst, of course, were pieces of the fragmented mask of the Hassan-i-Sabbah, the "Old Man of the Mountain." He couldn't say that he knew what they looked like, but he could guess that, somewhere along the line, there was an issue. This was most definitely not the fabled assassin.

The individual before him looked like an androgynous teenager, with long wispy black hair. They wore a rather form-fitting black bodysuit and had a headband with an upside-down triangle.

"Yo," the Servant waved at him, "I'm gonna guess that you're my Master?" The voice didn't help to determine the gender, having both masculine and feminine aspects.

Kirei nodded, brandishing his Command Seals at the Servant. "I am."

The Servant shrugged. "Okay, I guess the contract is complete." Kirei was rather surprised. This Hero didn't really seem to care much for formality. "Oh, by the way, I'm the Assassin for this War. Nice to meetcha."

Assassin offered his (her?) hand for shake, which Kirei not-so-eagerly reciprocated. He knew that some error had been made. He would just have to live with it.

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(Basement, Tohsaka Manor, One Week Prior to the Holy Grail War)

Tokiomi Tohsaka was nervous.

Now, nobody would ever be able to tell because he was an expert at being able to hide his emotions. But the point stood that inside he was nervous.

When Kirei had informed him of just what had happened during his summoning, it had made Tokiomi incredibly paranoid at making his summoning go right. Kirei had done the ritual perfectly, at the height of his own magic ability, with the perfect artifact; yet he had still summoned the not-intended Servant. Fortunately, this new Servant still had the abilities to take part in Tokiomi's original plan, but it was still a tad bit nerve-wracking.

Tokiomi had prepared the summoning circle with the most potent of his prana. He had waited until the very peak of his own magic ability, about 1:30 in the morning. He would use the most potent and most powerful of his magical jewel collection to assist the ritual. He had the artifact prepared nearby, the first skin a snake had ever shed. Now, everything was prepared as perfectly as he could, all he had to do was succeed and summon Gilgamesh.

Even though he knew the incantation like the back of his hand, he still mentally went over it in his head a few times to make sure. He rechecked the summoning circle three times, before finally beginning his incantation.

He even decided to channel prana to his voice box, to fill his words themselves with power.

Tokiomi was incredibly relieved when out of the summoning circle came a golden-armored man with golden hair and red eyes. Tokiomi kneeled. After all, it wouldn't do to displease the fabled King. "I have summoned you. I ask: are you the King of Heroes, Gilgamesh?"

"Yes." Even that one word carried a sense of smug superiority.

Tokiomi smiled from his position. Having Gilgamesh as a Servant virtually assured his victory, no matter what class.

Everything was still going according to plan.

The same could not be said of other Masters…

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(Penthouse, Fuyuki Hyatt Hotel, One Week Prior to the Holy Grail War)

Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi observed his newly summoned Servant with a scowl plainly visible on his face, his fiancée Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri with an expression of surprise.

Originally, he planned to summon Alexander the Great. With such a mighty Servant, there was no way that he could possibly lose. But then somebody went and stole his artifact. Whoever it was, he was expecting to summon the mighty Servant themselves, and he eagerly awaited encountering such an individual and teaching them just what it meant to steal from him.

Fortunately, he had a backup plan, and had prepared additional artifacts, the magical swords Moralltach and Beagalltach, in order to summon Diarmuid Ua Duibhne as a Saber. He had chanted the summoning ritual with the swords nearby, content that while he wouldn't receive his first Servant of choice, he would still have an honorable and powerful warrior under his command.

Things did not go according to plan.

First of all, before him was a girl. Unless the Legends were very wrong, Diarmuid was male.

She was short, maybe a bit over five feet tall. She possessed red hair done up in a ponytail, reddish-orange eyes, and fair skin. Her clothing consisted of a dark red dress, underneath which could be seen a pink skirt, along red knee-high boots and dark thigh highs. She just looked like a young teenager with rather expensive taste in clothing.

That is, if it wasn't for the rather large red and gold spear she was hefting; longer than she was tall, swung over her shoulder, allowing him to instantly recognize her as a Servant of the Lancer class.

She also had what looked like a lollipop in her mouth. "Hi, I'm gonna guess that you're my Master." He brandished his Command Seals in her direction, making her nod her head. "Alright, I guess our… contract is complete. I am the Servant Lancer, if you couldn't tell."

Things were not going Kayneth's way. Both of his first and second choices for a Servant had failed. Getting the artifacts for their summoning was not cheap! And to top it off, he ended up with an adolescent Lancer of all classes!

Kayneth's current mood could be described in one word: pissed. "You… why was Diarmuid not summoned!?" Anger could be detected flowing off of him in waves.

Lancer picked at her ear. "I don't know about any Diarmuid, but I will tell you that I'm way better than he could ever be!" She shot off a thumbs-up in her Master's direction.

"I might as well just give up! All of my planning's been ruined. I did not join the fabled Holy Grail War to be constantly exposed to unexpected circumstances like this!"

Sola-Ui looked at him patronizingly. "Kayneth, cal—"

Lancer interrupted. "And that's why you'll lose. Somebody who could truly win a war of such epic proportions should be able to encounter any situation and still come out on top." She shook her head at him as if she were disappointed.

Kayneth shook in rage. This… this little girl would dare tell him what to do!? He briefly looked down to his Command Seals, contemplating the use of one. "Why you…"

Sola-Ui stepped in between them. "CALM DOWN! Look... Kayneth, things have not gone as planned, sure, but we still have a Servant. She has to be powerful to have ended up in the Throne of Heroes." Kayneth looked suitably scolded. Sola-Ui turned to Lancer. "Any you, I know that you couldn't have known beforehand, but Kayneth has been under extreme amounts of stress lately. Please don't add to it." While she had no love for her husband-to-be, she wouldn't let the main players of her faction in this War have such an antagonistic relationship right off the bat.

Kayneth straightened himself out, before turning to Lancer. "I'm sorry. As my fiancée has said, I have been under large amounts of stress lately, and I mistakenly took it out on you."

She bowed to him, a decidedly Asian trait. "I am sorry as well, Master. I spoke out of turn, not understanding the background or circumstances. I ask you to forgive me."

Sola-Ui smiled. "Good. I am Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri, and I will be acting as your prana supply for the War, so that Kayneth can fight alongside you." While Kayneth wouldn't truly be fighting alongside her against Servants, he would confront the Masters.

Lancer appraised her Master. Someone who would fight alongside a Servant, most likely against other Servants? That would require quite a bit of bravery. Perhaps she had misjudged the man…

"Very well," Kayneth began, "We have a big day tomorrow. I would rest and take some time to prepare. I will retire to my quarters…"

After Kayneth left, Lancer turned to Sola-Ui. "So… you guys got any food here?"

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(Matou Manor, One Day Prior to the Holy Grail War)

Zouken Matou, head of the Matou Family, looked upon his son. "Well, Kariya, I must admit that I am impressed." The left side of Kariya's face and body pulsed from the worms inside of him. "The Holy Grail itself has recognized you as a Master. I suppose you're not completely worthless as a mage."

Kariya looked at his inhuman 'father,' a fierce scowl adorning his visage. "Don't sugarcoat it, how long do I have."

Zouken chuckled. "I'd say a month at most."

A month. A month to win the Grail and save Sakura. She was the only reason he even reacquainted himself with his long-estranged family. When he won the Grail, Zouken would give her to him, and he could just play in the park with her, her sister and her mother, the woman he loved but could never have. Just like old times. Even if he only had a month, he would make that month the greatest time of his life.

Oh, how simple the world used to be.

"A month should be more than enough time."

Zouken chuckled once again. It was a terrible sound. "Well, to celebrate such a wondrous occasion I've prepared some gifts for you. Let's say they're to make up for all the birthdays I've missed." He chuckled once again. It was easily becoming Kariya's least favorite sound.

Zouken gestured to a tiny piece of wood, barely visible, positioned next to the prepared summoning circle. "A splinter of the Round Table." Even Kariya, who had lived in Japan his whole life, had heard about the fabled Arthurian Legends. This would definitely summon a strong Servant.

"And also, a way to make up for your weakness as a magus." Here, Zouken presented to Kariya a piece of paper. Reading it, Kariya recognized it as having the standard chant for summoning a Servant, but there was a little extra at the end.

"And what will this do?" He would be damned if he trusted the monster completely.

"It will give your Servant the boost of Mad Enhancement, giving them strength in exchange for sanity, summoning them as a Berserker Servant." Zouken had no reason to lie.

Kariya internally debated with himself. He had no intention of joining this war blindly, he had researched plenty on all of the seven classes of Servant. While Berserker was undoubtedly powerful, maybe even the strongest of Servants, it was also the most uncontrollable and costly to maintain. It would definitely lessen his remaining time even further, it could even kill him if he wasn't careful. But it would definitely give him an edge…

"Very well," he gave his consent. He would live with the consequences of his choice later. He held his hand with the Command Seals out to the circle, and began his chant, reading from the paper in his other hand, making sure he fulfilled his role correctly.

He reached the additional, Berserker-specific verses…

"_Yet, thou serves with thine eyes clouded in chaos._

_Thou, bound in the cage of madness. I am he who command those chains!_"

A flash of light emanated from the summoning circle.

Zouken, the first to recover, chuckled lowly. "Well, it looks like you're not a complete failure when it comes to magecraft. Even if the Servant summoned wasn't as expected…"

"Hi! I'm the Servant Berserker! Nice to meetcha!" Came a very youthful male voice.

From the circle stood a young boy with large black spiky green-tipped hair. He wore all green. Green boots, a green shirt, and green short shorts. He had large hazel eyes. "So, which one of you is my Master?"

Kariya gestured to himself. "That would be me." He coughed a few times, before stabilizing himself.

"Well, Kariya, looks like you've summoned a Berserker, even if it wasn't the one intended. Remember, secure the Grail for me and you will have Sakura." Zouken chuckled to himself before disappearing into the shadows…

Berserker observed his new Master, seeing suppressed tremors running through his body. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." Kariya truly appreciated the genuine concern for his health that his Servant had. "Let's get out of here; we have a war to win."

Kariya slowly stumbled out of the manor and into the streets of Fuyuki City. Maybe he really could win this war…

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><p><strong>Joki Boi<strong>

**Proudly Presents**

**Fate: Zero Hope**

**So, that was the prologue to what I hope gets remembered as an epic saga!**

**To recap, in this chapter, Assassin, Archer, Lancer, and Berserker were summoned. I wonder if you can guess who they are! It should be pretty easy actually…**

**Also, during the timeframe of this chapter, Saber was summoned, but I didn't feel like recapping a scene that would be no different from canon.**

**All of the remaining Servants to be summoned will appear in the next chapter.**

**Don't expect this to have a regular update schedule.**

**So guys, please tell me what you think! Love it, hate it, I'm open to all opinions!**

**Until next time!**


	2. More Servants?

**And now it's time for the next chapter, I hope that I updated quick enough for peoples' tastes.**

**Time for all of the remaining Servants to be summoned! I'm sure you've all been eagerly awaiting this!**

**Let's go!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, blah blah blah.**

**Chapter Posted: 11/28/2014**

Chapter II: More Servants!?

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><p>(Mackenzie Residence, One Day Prior to the Holy Grail War)<p>

Waver Velvet, aspiring magus, was jubilant! The Holy Grail had recognized him as a potential victor in one of the greatest magical conflicts fathomable in the modern age.

Only a few weeks earlier he had stolen the catalyst that his teacher, Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi, had selected for his own Servant in the war. His teacher had mocked him and all of the research that he had put into his thesis, probably without even looking at it! So in revenge Waver had stolen the artifact, for a Hero whom he did not know. He then fled to Japan's Fuyuki City, the location of the war, hypnotizing an old couple into thinking he was their grandson. He had waited anxiously for this moment, the moment when he had received his Command Seals.

He immediately set out to work, preparing the summoning circle with chicken's blood. It was messy and rather disgusting, but it would was glad it was late at night, while the Mackenzies were sleeping, so that they wouldn't be disturbed by the noise. Even if he wasn't truly their grandson he quite liked the old couple. He wouldn't want to have to meddle with their minds even more.

He recited the incantation perfectly, wondering what type of Servant the artifact would bring forth. Out of all things, he was not expecting the individual which was present after the dust from the summoning cleared.

Before him was a girl, who looked even younger than he. She had blue eyes and reddish-brown hair, and in her hair was what looked like little red nodes. What really stood out about her, though, was her outfit. She had what looked like a skin-tight red uniform, going from neck to toe, with orange highlights.

Waver quickly looked away before he got carried away. This was a Hero! He couldn't give the wrong first impression.

"I am the Servant Rider! I ask: are you the one who summoned me?"

"U-Umm, yes. Yes I am. I-I'm your Master, W-Waver Velvet." Dammit, he stuttered. He was prepared to be brave in front of the Hero, but all of that disappeared once he was actually on-the-spot.

"Very well, the contract is complete." Rider turned back to the house, obviously their residence for the duration of the war. When she reached the door, she noticed that he was still staring at the spot from which she appeared. "C'mon! What are you, stupid!?"

Her new Master ran after her. She grunted in mild annoyance. He reminded her of _that man_.

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(Residential Address, Fuyuki City)

"Fill, fill, fill 'er up, fill. Repeat it four times…" Uryuu Ryuunosuke muttered to himself, in deep concentration. Using his feet, he was painting an odd circle on the ground, which according to the book in his hands was used to summon demons! Or, well, something like that. He didn't really read the book fully, but it said something about the whole world's evil, so it had to be something cool! The looks on those guys' faces when he told them they were gonna be used to summon demons was priceless!

"Hmmm? Was it four or five? Uh… Destroy each when it's filled…" He muttered to himself, confused. He turned back to the book for reference. "Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill… Yeah! It totally was five!" His ears pricked at a news report on the television nearby.

"In other news, there has been a recent string of murders. Each victim was killed in their own home. Police have commented that on the floor at each scene has been a circle drawn in the victims' blood. The purpose is as-of-now, unknown. A noted professor on criminal psychology has appeared—"

Uryuu chuckled too himself nervously. "Maybe I did have a bit too much fun. Oh well…" At least he had remembered to clean up after he was done. It wouldn't do to leave messes behind, it would lead the police in his direction, plus it was just plain rude. Uryuu Ryuunosuke was anything but rude; he was downright neighborly if he had to voice his opinion.

He turned to the bound, gagged, scared-shitless son of the now-dead couple in the corner. "Yo," he approached the boy, "The media keeps calling me a demon, but I'd say that's pretty rude if they really do exist." He stopped in front of the boy. "…Do you think demons exist?"

He quickly kneeled down in front of the boy, a mile-wide smile on his face. "Yo! The name is Uryuu Ryuunosuke, and I'm a demon. Hmmm…" He placed his hand on his chin. "I don't know if that's the proper way to go about it." The boy started squirming in his binds. "Look at this!" He waved the papers showing his ancestor's notes in the kid's face. "Apparently my ancestors were trying to summon demons, go figure! What we're gonna do is figure out if they really exist. But, y'know, it'd be pretty lame if I brought a demon all the way out here just to chat and send it on it's merry way…"

Uryuu smiled creepily down at the boy. "So kid… if a demon appears, do you mind if I let it eat you?"

The boy began wildly thrashing in his bindings, trying desperately to find some way to escape. "MMMMMMMMRRRRRRRRRRPHHHHHHHH!"

Uryuu laughed at the kid's futile struggles. "Oh man, I can only imagine what it'd be like to be killed by a demon! It ought to be pretty—OW!" His hand felt like it was on fire! He watched as red markings formed on the back of his hand, scythe-like in design. The circle he had drawn began glowing before billowing smoke.

When the smoke cleared, a figure made itself known. Uryuu found himself a tad disappointed that the individual was a girl, she looked nothing like a demon. In fact she looked like the type of person he'd go out and kill! Her appearance could be compared to that of a doll: she had pale skin with no blemishes, and long blonde hair which reached nearly down to the floor. Her eyes were an icy blue-green shade, and her outfit could be described like that of a gothic lolita, very frilly and with many darker shades.

While he was a tad bit disappointed at her appearance, he wouldn't let that deter him. She was a demon, and he would be damned if he would be inhospitable to a guest! She observed the surroundings before turning to him. "I am the Servant Caster. Are you the one to summon me?"

He scratched his head a bit. "Uh, yeah. My name's Uryuu Ryuunosuke, I'm a freeter! My hobbies include stabbing and murder! I especially like little kids and young women."

She muttered to herself: "To be summoned by such an incompetent. I can't sense anything beyond slightly above average reserves from this one! Just my luck, to be summoned by a normal human." She turned to him sharply. "Mr. Ryuunosuke, do you know anything about a Holy Grail War?"

He stroked his chin in thought. "I've heard of the Holy Grail, but I don't know about any Holy Grail War." She seemed to be irritated by this response. Oh no! He couldn't disappoint the demon! He gestured to the hogtied boy, still squirming and trying to break free. "Hey, uh, demon. Would you like a snack? I've got a little kid all prepared for you, waiting to be eaten!" He enthusiastically asked, as if he were a waiter advertising a particularly delightful delicacy.

Caster quirked an eyebrow at her summoner. "Well, he's got energy, that's for sure…" She turned to the young boy, approaching him slowly.

He stopped all of his thrashing, looking in fear at the girl—no, she was a demon—approaching him. He was going to die! HE WAS GOING TO DIE!

The demon stood above him, before… cutting his binds.

"Wh-What?" He was shocked, unable to believe what was going on, even as he stood himself up, rubbing his rope-burned wrists and legs. He was going to live…

Uryuu looked on, disappointed. Here he had this meal, all prepared, and the demon was letting him go. "Some demon," he muttered to himself. After the kid left the girl's sight he'd have to go out and kill him. He couldn't let the police find out, and he'd even told the kid his name.

Caster suddenly hugged the boy close to herself, her mouth next to his ear. "Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright," she tried to sooth the child. He was too tense. He slowly started relaxing… He'd be fine. He'd be fine…

"Everything will be over soon. You won't suffer any more." His eyes widened, understanding what was about to happen, but he couldn't act in time. He never would have been able to act in time. He felt something prick his neck, could feel things get colder, then everything turned black…

Uryuu was speechless. He had seen everything from his angle. She plunged her teeth into his neck and he could see the kid's veins pulse as his blood was sucked out, leaving him as a lifeless sack of flesh. He had called forth a vampire, one of his favorite types of monster! "That was so fucking awesome! You're a vampire! This is so cool!"

Caster rubbed at her mouth. It had been quite a while since she last had a meal, even in life… She smirked at her Master. He may not have known anything about magic, but she was fairly certain she could work him into something substantial. She could tell that his blood had a long line of magic behind it, even if the last few generations were dormant. The War was just around the corner, but she had plenty of time.

He kneeled before her. "That was so cool! If you keep showing me cool new ways to kill people, I'll follow you until the day I die!" Caster smirked at his prone form. This would make things a lot easier…

She sighed to herself, reclining on the couch and flipping through the TV channels. Uryuu got up and started dancing around, muttering to himself. He seemed happy. While her Master wasn't very powerful, in fact in terms of magecraft he had zero power, things could have been worse. At least he wouldn't constrict what she was allowed to do, that would've really pissed her off. There were few things in life she hated more than being unable to do what she wanted.

She noticed a forgotten group of papers on the floor. It was rather thick. "What's this?"

Uryuu noticed and stopped his jubilee. "Oh, those are some papers some of my ancestors wrote or something. It's how I brought you here!" He flipped to the page with the summoning chant.

Caster smiled, before snatching the papers from his hands. She hoped this would work.

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(Throne of Heroes)

Zelretch smiled, things were picking up. It had been a boring few weeks, just waiting around with the tattooed man, who had told him to call him Seihai-kun, but he could be patient. He didn't want to miss anything. Despite the immature ways in which he occasionally acted, he was capable of patience. Unfortunately, Seihai-kun wasn't much for making conversation.

Currently they were observing Caster's activities. She had only just been summoned, but had already begun to make her own preparations and bids for power in the war. Very business-like. He noticed what it was she was doing and, with a smirk, turned to Seihai-kun.

'Seihai-kun' sighed a bit, already knowing and resigned to what Zelretch would request. He nodded wordlessly, and Zelretch let out a little cheer before repeating the process of Servant selection.

Fortunately for Seihai-kun, this would be the last time that this act would be undertaken in the war.

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(Fuyuki City Outskirts, Same Time)

"What!? Who are you? You're not Achilles…" An outraged magus spoke. He possessed fair skin and spoke with an American accent. He had been overjoyed when he was selected as a Master in the Holy Grail War, and had prepared accordingly, even acquiring an artifact corresponding to the great Greek hero.

Instead, the Servant who he summoned was most decidedly not Achilles. He wore a simple red cloak covering his body and had red hair. His only really distinguishing features were his odd purple eyes.

The Servant sighed to himself. "I see that this will get me nowhere…" He quickly extended his hand out and placed it atop the Master's head.

The man paused, terrified. He could feel something digging around in his brain, traveling through his memories. He tried to scream but no sound would come out. He briefly glanced to his Command Seals, prepared to use one on the obviously rebellious Servant, but before he could the arm was removed from his head.

And with the arm's removal the man fell lifeless to the ground, like a puppet with his strings cut. The man wasn't dead, the Servant still needed a prana supply.

The Servant picked up the unconscious man and put him over his shoulder, before heading off in no particular direction. "As the Servant Avenger, I will be victorious in this Grail War…"

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(Residential Address, Fuyuki City)

"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Caster laughed to herself. Everything was going perfectly! She didn't even know if her plot would work, but it was going off without a hitch!

"Cool…" Uryuu muttered to himself. He could tell what Caster was doing. She had taken the notes, turned to the summoning circle, and began the chant he had used herself. This would be so great! The vampire was about to summon another demon! He couldn't wait to figure out what type. Smoke began to appear out of the summoning circle for the second time that day, and a figure made itself known.

It was another girl, but this time Uryuu was not disappointed, just more curious. This one was definitely more mature in appearance than Caster. She was rather tall, and had grey hair with two braids going down both sides of her face, each tied off with little green bows. Her eyes were also grey, and she possessed fair skin.

Her most striking, and in Uryuu's opinion odd, feature was her clothing. She wore what looked like a white and dark blue maid's outfit, with short sleeves, an apron, and a green ribbon, along with a maid's headband in her hair.

The new Servant could tell that the being in front of her was a Servant, and a significantly powerful one at that. She pulled out some knives from seemingly nowhere and prepared to attack, but was stopped by Caster. "Halt!" Caster brandished her arm at her, showing off her Command Seals. "Despite being the Servant Caster, I have managed to break the Grail System and secured myself a Servant! You are that Servant! Would you dare to strike your own Master?!" Caster may have been giving herself a bit too much credit, but she needed to secure the new Hero's loyalty.

The new Servant looked to the only normal human in the room. Uryuu answered her unasked question. "Yeah, everything that Caster said is true. I even watched her say the spell and summon you." This was so cool! Not just one demon, but two! He wanted to make sure that they didn't kill each other, that wouldn't be fun. He wondered how this new demon would kill and if it would be any cool…

The maid noticed the Command Seals on Uryuu's hand. So he was Caster's Master. That, in essence, meant that he was also her Master. "That would explain why I am classless." At Caster's intrigued look, the maid continued. "I have noted that, despite being eligible for both Caster and Assassin classes, I possess neither. I guess the improbability of a Servant summoning another Servant could account for this irregularity."

Caster felt very smug at the moment. She had managed to in essence break the rules of the system. No other Servant would have ever thought of such a thing! She was a rule breaker! She was brilliant!

At her Servant's remarks, though, she paused. "So? If you have no class, are you completely worthless?"

A moment later the new Servant was behind her. That was insane! She hadn't even seen her move! She hadn't even seen her tense her muscles in preparation for movement! She considered herself fast, but that kind of speed was just insane. "I can assure you, I am far from useless." And a moment later the maid was back in her starting position.

"Well, you can consider me impressed. Now, though, what should I call you?" That was a rather pressing issue.

Uryuu took that moment to interject. "How about Wraith? You're like a ghost, untraceable in your movements, elegant yet deadly." Uryuu really liked the new one. She was so damn fast! She could probably kill fifty men in a second! This was gonna be so cool.

After a pause, the Servant nodded. "That will do."

Caster looked at Uryuu. "I never pictured you as someone to wax poetic. What a surprise." She returned to her planning. After a minute, her eye twitched. Uryuu and Wraith were just standing there… "Why don't you guys go and do something? You look bored."

Uryuu shrugged before just wandering out the door. Wraith looked at Caster. "Master, what would you like me to do?"

"I don't know, what do you usually do? For fun or something?"

"I usually clean or make a meal."

"Then why don't you clean this place up? It's filthy…"

And so Wraith set about doing just that, not even flinching at removing the blood or the bodies of the family. Though she did inspect the boy's wounds on his neck. The Wraith turned to Caster, her eyes narrowed, before turning back to continue here work. "How fitting," she could be heard muttering.

Caster continued on for a moment before coming to a sudden realization. Uryuu was out doing who knows what in broad daylight, not even covering up his Command Seals! He would be a sitting duck. "Shit! Wraith, stop, we're going out to find Uryuu right away!"

"Yes, Master."

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(Streets of Fuyuki City)

Kariya was hobbling around the streets aimlessly. He made sure to have his hood up, so as to not frighten anyone, but his appearance and demeanor still made it so that people tried to stay away.

Berserker was behind him, in his astral form, just following his Master's random travels. "So, Master," Berserker didn't seem to have an objections to just walking around, "What do you want to get the Grail for?"

Kariya stopped a moment, debating telling him. While this was a very personal matter, Berserker was the one to whom he entrusted both his and Sakura's future. He had the right to know. Kariya changed direction and walked to an alley, making sure there was nobody nearby to hear their conversation.

"My family is the Matou Family, formerly the Makiri Family, and they were one of the three families which developed the Holy Grail War System. That old bastard you saw is the head of the family, Zouken." He spat the name out with disgust. "He has survived for at least a century using worms to extend his own life. Those worms are what make up the 'training' of the Matou Family, and those worms are currently inside of me."

Berserker was disgusted, and thought he understood what his Master's goal was. "So, you wish to use the Grail to purify yourself of the worms inside of you?" He found himself incorrect when Kariya shook his head in the negative.

"A little girl who I care for very deeply, Sakura, was given to Zouken to be trained. If I win the Grail for Zouken, then he will return the girl to her family and remove the worms from her body." He removed his hood, and Berserker got his first true look at the appearance of his Master. It was ghastly, to say the least… "For this goal I have subjected myself to that very training! I only have at most a month of life left, but I will save her!"

He spoke with passion, for this was what he had devoted the remainder of his life to. He spoke with the certainty of a man who knew that there was no way that he could fail. That victory would be achieved, in the end. To believe otherwise would be to spell his own death…

"But to do this, to win… I need your help, Berserker." He bowed to the significantly shorter child. "Please! I need your help! I can't give you food, clothing, safety, even shelter! I can't give you anything in return… but please, help me Berserker…"

A moment's pause.

Kariya felt himself being pulled up from his bowing position. Despite his childish appearance, Berserker was strong. Very strong. Kariya knew that he was a Heroic Spirit, and on top of that in the Berserker class, but it was still odd to see him as anything but a cheerful young boy.

"You don't need to ask me for help. I'd follow you either way; you're my Master after all." Berserker rubbed the back of his head bashfully. "I'm just glad that I was summoned by a kind Master." He could have been summoned by a much more unscrupulous individual, like a serial killer or something! As far as he could tell, his Master was selfless and rather kind. He was content with following him. "But you're saying we don't have a place to stay?"

Kariya sighed to himself. It didn't make him happy, but it was for the best. "My landowner probably wouldn't recognize me, looking like… this." He gestured to his face, the veins on the left side visibly throbbing every few moments. "She'd probably call the cops or something, or maybe even try to kill me. I look like a really far-gone addict. Hell, I look like a zombie!" At least he was able to face his situation with humor. "Besides, traveling around like this would make it harder for an opponent to trace us to a specific base of operations."

Berserker shrugged. He had been exposed to far worse situations than trying to find shelter in a city. "It's all good. Don't worry Master, we'll beat all the other Servants and save the girl!"

Kariya chuckled, his confidence rising. While he put on an incredibly brave front, on the inside he was a wreck…

'Maybe this will work. Thank you, Berserker. Truly thank you…'

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(Penthouse, Fuyuki Hyatt Hotel)

Kayneth was nervous. He had discussed with Lancer, in depth, her abilities and capabilities, and he had to say he wasn't so confident that he could just expertly take away the prize with no difficulty.

While she was an incredible warrior, he didn't know how she would stack in ability compared to others. At the very least he could expect an appearance by Alexander the Great, and he was not confident in her ability to defeat such a legendary warrior. And then there was the Saber class, reportedly the strongest of classes. He knew not the identity that the Saber class would retain, but he had an instinct that his Lancer would be unable to defeat them.

Fairly, at least…

While it went against his honor as a magus, he may have had to use underhanded tactics. He would try to have the Masters show themselves, and then have Lancer quickly pick them off. When he discussed this idea with her, she seemed to agree with the proposal, enthusiastically even! He was sure that if he had summoned Diarmuid as originally intended he would have disagreed with the plan, as it would have gone against his knight's honor. Of course, if he had summoned Diarmuid then he probably wouldn't have been in the situation to begin with, but that was neither here nor there…

Of course, should the plan not work out and they be forced into a Servant vs. Servant confrontation, they would resort back to his original plan. That is, have him take down the Master while Lancer stalls the Servant. He didn't know if she could defeat the enemy one-on-one, but even she should be capable of defeating the Servant after it lost its prana supply. And he had faith in her at least being able to stall, with a combination of her Battle Continuation and Noble Phantasms…

That was another thing! She had two Noble Phantasms, but one of them was completely useless and the other was completely passive and not useful for offense, and barely useful for defense! Fortunately she had a surprisingly large amount of Skills to make up for this, but in essence if an opponent should use a large scale or Anti-Army Noble Phantasm, she would be essentially defenseless. On top of this, the cost to maintain her was nearly double that of a normal Servant, perhaps triple in specific circumstances. While he himself would not be supplying the prana, he was still worried that his wife-to-be may accidentally be overtaxed and die of exhaustion. He would never be able to forgive himself…

Kayneth had the feeling that he was given the short end of the stick in this war…

Well, despite these new plans, he would still use his plan for what to do initially if Diarmuid was summoned, at least if there were no large changes. He would head to the docks at night the next day and have Lancer issue a challenge to any other Servant. He expected at least one to make an appearance, hopefully more. As it was so early in the war he doubted any of the other Servants would use any of their significantly more powerful Noble Phantasms, and was confident in Lancer's ability to survive basic combat.

They would identify the opponents' fighting style, class, and perhaps basic personality traits. The enemy would be cautious about Lancer's own Noble Phantasm, and would try not to provoke its use while most likely attempting to gain information for themselves.

It was risky, but Kayneth determined it to be, in the end, worth it. His Servant would be identified on first sight as a Lancer, and their fighting styles tend not to vary, which was accurate as far as his Lancer went. He hoped that they would not encounter the Saber, as their fighting styles tended to remain fairly predictable as well.

It was a risky plan, definitely. Kayneth just hoped that it would pay off in the end. Lancer was on guard duty for the remainder of the day, keeping her eye out for any enemy Servant. Specifically, Assassin.

No matter how strong his barriers or protections, he was fairly certain that a competent Assassin class Servant would still be able to enter undetected. He may have been confident and at-times arrogant, but he wasn't stupid. His preparations would be able to stop any Master, but they would do nothing but stall a Servant, if that.

Kayneth retired to his quarters to continue planning for various circumstances with Sola-Ui. Hopefully nothing too crazy would happen, at least until tomorrow…

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(Einzbern Castle, Fuyuki City Outskirts)

Kiritsugu Emiya sighed to himself as he went over his plans with his assistant, Hisau Maiya. He had made plans, backup plans, backup-backup plans and more in preparation for the Fourth Holy Grail War. He was the Master representative of the von Einzbern magus family, and he was provided many resources to win the Grail for them: funding, munitions, and most importantly one of the strongest of the Saber class Servants.

But Kiritsugu would have to guess that that very Servant would be one of his largest hindrances in his pursuit of victory. She was "King" Arthur, a textbook Hero, full of honor and chivalry. And because of that honor and chivalry she despised him and Maiya, much preferring to spend time with his wife, Irisviel von Einzbern. She just couldn't understand that this was a war and they had to do whatever they could to gain an advantage, no matter how cruel or underhanded. She would rather face an opponent on equal ground and handicap herself than just crush them with her power.

He and Maiya were currently discussing the other Masters at a planning table, Irisviel and Saber nearby and listening. "Through hacking, spying, and multiple connections I have been able to discover the identities of the six opposing Masters and have prepared portfolios on them and their histories. Though I have been unable to determine which Servant or class they have summoned."

He started going through the packets, one by one. "I will go through them in order of perceived threat, lowest to highest."

The first had an image of a man who looked to be in his twenties or thirties, with blue-ish hair. "Kariya Matou. Despite being this war's representative of the Matou Family, one of the magus families to develop the Heaven's Feel System, he has received no formal training in magecraft. About a year ago he disappeared from the face of the earth, only to reappear about a month ago, with what would appear to be Command Seals on his hand. Threat level should be minimal. Current whereabouts unknown, most likely the Matou Family mansion."

The next individual was a youthful lad, perhaps in his late teens. "Waver Velvet. Student enrolled at the Clock Tower until about a month ago, when he reported an extended trip to Japan for 'research' purposes. Command Seals noticed on hand while disembarking his flight to Japan. Third generation of a magus family, mild formal magecraft training, all in the fields of alchemy. No combat experience. Threat level should be minimal. Current whereabouts unknown."

The third person was a fairly average-looking person in a business suit. "Brent Landreth. American mage attempting to study Reality Marbles. No documented or rumored success. Was noticed with Command Seals on a flight to Japan out of Kansas. Fifth generation of a magus family, average amounts of formal magecraft training. Mild combat experience. Threat level should be low to middle. Current whereabouts unknown."

Fourth was a proud-looking man with a goatee. "Tokiomi Tohsaka. Second Owner of Fuyuki City and head of the Tohsaka Family, one of the three families to develop the Heaven's Feel System. Advanced magecraft capabilities. Not confirmed to be a Master, as he leaves his manor very scarcely, but his inclusion is highly likely as he is the head of the Tohsaka Family, who always have a representative, and the only other remaining candidates from his family would be his weak wife and two young daughters. Fifth generation of a magus family. Threat level should be middle to high. Currently residing in his manor."

Penultimately was an arrogant-looking blonde man. "Lord Kayneth Archibald El-Melloi. A teacher at London's Clock Tower, the youngest instructor in the field of spiritual evocation in its history. Waver Velvet is a student of his, so they may be allies. Confirmed as a Master when disembarking his flight to Japan. His magus family stretches back at least nine generations, and he is noted to be very talented, influential, and powerful. Has some type of mercury-based Mystic Code, though I was unable to secure any details beyond that. Threat level should be high. Currently residing in the penthouse of the Fuyuki Hyatt Hotel, along with his fiancé, Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri."

Finally was a man in priest's robes. "Kirei Kotomine. Highly-trained Executor of the Catholic Church and the son of the war's overseer. Apprenticed to Tokiomi Tohsaka about three years ago and is most likely allied with him. Confirmed as a Master at around the same time. First generation magus, but he has trained with a family head for over a year, so I wouldn't underestimate him. Executors are also trained expertly in martial arts and are supposed to be able to take down mages and Dead Apostles. Threat level is very high. Try not to engage at all costs without Saber. Current whereabouts unknown." This was the man who had Kiritsugu the most nervous in the war, and not just because of his abilities. He was a man who Kiritsugu just couldn't get a bead on, couldn't understand the motivations of.

He wasn't really saying any of this for Saber, as if a Master would be foolish enough to face her then they would be killed near-instantly, but for Irisviel, in the case that she be without any backup and need to fight against an enemy Master herself. She was not the most adept at offensive magic, holding more expertise in the art of healing or the crafting of barriers. He didn't know what to do if he lost her, so he intended to never put her in a perilous situation, but knew that it would be better to be safe than sorry.

"Master," Saber decided to speak up, "While the information provided is indeed useful, I believe that we should instead face the enemy Servants in open combat. I am sure that most of them would not disagree." She had voiced such an opinion many times during past interactions, but her Master had not listened. She would not give up though, and would continue to attempt to sway her Master's opinions.

Despite his incredibly nefarious methods, which while effective disgusted the knight within her, Saber could tell that Kiritsugu was a good person at heart. His interactions with his wife and his daughter, Illyasviel von Einzbern, proved as much to her. Despite this, though, she couldn't help but feel significantly more loathing for him than other emotions.

Needless to say, when Kiritsugu had informed her of the plan to have her travel mostly with Irisviel, who would pose as her Master, she was enthusiastic for the idea. She liked the wife of the Magus Killer, she was a kindhearted and understanding person, on top of an adequate healer, and it was easy to make conversation. The less time spent with her Master the better.

Kiritsugu ignored her, not even acknowledging her presence, continuing his plotting with Maiya. He found himself distracted by some movement outside the window.

'This is odd. There was no rain scheduled in the forecast for at least another week.' Indeed, it was raining outside, just a light shower, but hard enough to be noticed for a moment.

He couldn't help but feel it was some kind of omen for things to come…

Shaking such thoughts from his head, he returned to his planning. The war would be picking up soon, he had no time to waste.

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(Streets of Fuyuki)

Caster ran after Uryuu, tracing him by feeling the flow of his prana into her. He had managed to cover a surprising amount of distance, and the only reason she hadn't just teleported to his position would be the fact that it was the first time she had felt the sun in quite a long time…

Behind her, Wraith followed dutifully in her astral form. Wraith was surprised at her Master's ability to run around freely in the sunlight, being a vampire and all.

"Master, it is beginning to rain…" Indeed, small droplets of water began to fall from the sky. Caster paid no heed, just continuing until she was nearly soaked, until she stopped suddenly, her eyes wide.

"We need to get out of the rain. Now." She immediately turned into her astral form and caught up to Uryuu, who was just hanging out in an alley, looking around bored.

Uryuu blinked at Caster and Wraith immediately appearing in front of him from nowhere before… "Whoa, that was cool…"

"Uryuu, we need to get out of the rain now… Do you have anywhere that we can go?" Caster was anxious to get away from the water. She could feel it. Or, more precisely, she could feel what was _inside_ of it. Every single droplet held a tiny little bit of prana within, and if Caster had to guess it was being used as a sensory blanket, sending signals back to its user when it would encounter beings with high energy. Beings like _her_. It was a smart and useful technique, and seemed to be rather efficient in its prana usage as well.

Uryuu didn't understand why Caster was so anxious, but he had the perfect place in mind. "Sure, it might be messy, but it'll be the perfect place for people like us!" He led them on a short little walk to the riverside in the center of the city before finding his destination.

Caster stared blankly at where they were going to take up residency for the foreseeable future. 'At least until the rain lets up.' "The sewer?" She looked to Wraith to see if she could see her thoughts, but her face was expressionless.

"Yeah, it's perfect. It'd be the perfect place for demons like us! The sewer is where all of humanity's evil coalesces. At least, that's what it said in that book…" He muttered that last part to himself.

Caster sighed to herself. 'Oh well, it could be worse.' She gestured at the entrance. "Show us the way."

Uryuu smiled to himself, happy at Caster's acceptance. "Follow me, ladies."

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(Fuyuki Church)

"This is strange," Risei Kotomine, Moderator for the Fourth Holy Grail War, muttered to himself.

"What is it?" The new voice was that of his son, Kirei.

"The final Servant, Caster, was summoned. But moments later a new Servant appeared at the same location, and then a few minutes after that another Servant was summoned further away."

"What?" Kirei was concerned. This war was turning out wrong before it had even started. "Nine Servants? This does not bode well."

"No, this is highly unexpected. Nine Servants is unprecedented." Risei was deeply concerned for the future these events would bring.

Kirei paused, deep in thought, before shaking his head. "Regardless, it is time to begin." He began to walk towards the church's large doors. "I shall order Assassin to begin the first strike."

"My son…" Risei didn't really know what to say. A knot was forming in his stomach, he had a sense of dread when he looked at his son. "Be careful…"

Kirei stopped before the doors and turned to face his father, a look of confidence on his face. "Worry not father. We will be victorious. I will do only what must be done." With that, he opened the doors and left.

Risei sighed to himself, sitting down on one of the seats. "Maybe I'm getting too old for this…" His eyes suddenly widened, a familiar sensation making itself known. "What? Not again! A tenth Servant?!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Residential Address)

Within her bed, a teenage girl groaned to herself. She was currently unconscious, but was tossing and turning, in some type of pain. She had had a fever that day and her parents opted out of taking her to school, having her rest in bed instead. She had grumbled, but about an hour prior had fallen asleep.

Now, though, she was moving every which way without actually leaving the comfort of her bed. Even though nobody was present to witness the event, a red sigil appeared on her hand: It looked like a nuclear waste symbol, with three triangles all pointed to the center. On the floor a magical circle was formed, and without any fanfare a Servant appeared.

It was a young girl, at most in her early teens. She was very pale and had red eyes along with white hair, inside of which were tiny pink decorations above her ears, looking like feathers. She wore a nearly all pink outfit. Pink shoes with wings on them and pink thigh-highs. White gloves on her hands going to her wrists, with pink under it extending to near her shoulders. And a pink body which left bits of her back exposed, along with a rather short pink and white skirt.

"I am the Servant Saver, I ask—" she caught herself, noticing that the one who summoned her was sleeping. She then inspected her new Master closer and paled even more than usual. She could sense that her magic circuits were completely untrained. She was summoned by a normal person. 'Oh no,' she thought to herself, 'I didn't even want to do this in the first place. Not only am I still here, but I'm summoned by a completely normal person. And it has to be _her_.' She sighed. She had a high Luck Stat, but still always seemed to end up in unfavorable situations.

'Well, I'll let her get her sleep; it must have been exhausting to summon me. I'll come back later.' With that, Saver turned into her astral form so as not to stress out her Master's adolescent circuits even more and made her way outside, to explore her new area and perhaps perform a bit of reconnaissance.

Inside of her bed, a young Taiga Fujimura had no clue just what kind of world she was about to be thrown into.

* * *

><p><span>Omake<span>

"Mongrel!" The King of Heroes roared, wearing civilian attire. Simply a black jacket over a white button-up shirt with black slacks. He was also shaking around a fairly average-looking man with wonderful hair around by a chain. "How dare you not give me an appearance in this chapter!? I'm your avatar for fuck's sake!"

"I'm so sorry… my King. As an author, I have failed you. I'll make sure to include you in every chapter from now on."

Gilgamesh sniffed haughtily. "I am glad that you have been able to learn from your mistake. I will not take subsequent failures lightly…"

"Yes, Gilgamesh, you are very good at teaching me to learn from my mistakes. Which is why I brought you here!"

Gilgamesh looked around. They were in a classroom setting, standing at the front of the empty class, where the teacher usually stands. "Wait, where are we? Why am I dressed in these clothes, I shouldn't get these until at least Fate/stay night. Why aren't you calling me by my class name? Why is this section labeled Omake!? Answer me!"

"Hwehwehweh." Joki Boi chuckled. He gestured all around him. "This is where I try to fit in some comic relief, while also answering questions from the readers or just commenting about the story! I call it:

"Teach Us! Gil-sensei!"

Gilgamesh stared a moment… "So, you're ripping off Tsukihime because you don't want to copy TIM with the Taiga Dojos… Wait a minute! How do I know all of this?!"

"Well you see, I, with my power and authority as The Author, have granted you multiversal knowledge to better suit the needs of answering the readers' questions. Or just making random obscure references."

Gilgamesh shook his head a moment. "I feel so meta right now…"

He stood up proudly a moment later. "Well, if I am going to be the 'sensei,' then I have the right to decorate my classroom as I wish." He used a Badass Finger Snap before going into the Badass Arm-Fold, with an explosion going off behind him. On the wall, adorned like trophies, were various weapons from his collection.

"How did you do that? That big old explosion thing!"

"I was preparing for class. If you'd like to learn, it's my first lesson…" Gilgamesh had this planned out. He only needed one more thing. He reached deep into his Gate, and pulled out… "The First Pair of Intellectual Glasses! Made of Gold!" Capitalized for emphasis, of course. Gilgamesh put them on, and his credibility as a teacher immediately skyrocketed. He was no longer Gilgamesh. He had been born anew.

HE. WAS. GIL-SENSEI!

A bell rung and students began to walk in. Joki Boi himself stood near the door. After everyone found themselves situated, Gilgamesh rapidly turned around, an epic explosion going off behind him, before adjusting his Scary Shiny Glasses.

"Lesson Number One: Awesomeness Is Volatile! I am your teacher, Gil-sensei, and for however long this fanfic will last I will be your instructor! Being in my class, you are no longer students. You are Students, and will refer to yourself as such! Anybody who cannot handle this responsibility will leave now!" A few students, in tears, fled from the room. They couldn't handle the pressure.

Gil-sensei began to take roll. "Anon1?" Here! "Anon2?" Here! "Anon3?" Here! "What is up with these names?"

He looked into the Classroom. All of his Students looked different, aside from one feature. "Why are you all wearing Guy Fawkes masks?" He flashed his glasses in an intimidating manner.

"For the lulz…"

"I see. Student rebellion on the first day…" He opened his Gate. "But I have… the First Guy Fawkes Mask! Made of Gold!"

And so, Gilgamesh's teaching career began…

* * *

><p><strong>And that's a wrap! All the Servants are now summoned!<strong>

**I wanted to do more in this chapter than just more Servant appearances, so I also went back with some other groups and showed their interactions a bit more. I felt like doing this before having a whole bunch of grand battles go down.**

**Also, A/Ns from now on will probably be in the form of Teach Us! Gil-sensei! I just stopped this one early because it was getting a bit long… I promise they won't be that long ever again, unless really major events happen or there's a lot of questions the readers want answered…**

**Bet you guys weren't expecting Taiga to be used as Saver's Master. I didn't want to just use an OC, and the idea just sorta popped into my head. I've got quite the plan.**

**And go and guess who the Servants are! I was rather detailed with a few of their descriptions, though I realize with some I may have been a tad lacking.**

**It was really hard to stop writing about Uryuu. He's just a fun character! I'm just gonna call him Uryuu because it sounds better than Ryuunosuke, even if that is his given name.**

**Love it? Hate it? I'm open to all opinions! Please tell me in the comments any fights or encounters you would request, be they between Servants, Masters, Servants and Masters, or just whole big groups together! I'm open to ideas, but you need to tell me.**

**And now time for the first Servant stat sheet! Yay!**

* * *

><p>Servant: Saber<br>True Identity: Arturia Pendragon  
>Title: King of Knights<br>Alternate Classes: Lancer, Rider  
>Designation: Hero<br>Origin: Fate/Zero  
>Gender: Female<br>Master: Emiya Kiritsugu  
>Alignment: Lawful Good<p>

_Stats_

Strength: B  
>Agility: A<br>Endurance: A  
>Mana: A<br>Luck: D  
>N. Phantasm: A++<p>

_Class Skills_

Riding: Expertise to ride animals and vehicles.

A: All creatures but those of _Phantasmal Beast_ and _Divine Beast_-rank can be used as mounts. This rank is high enough to have aptitude for the Rider class.

Magic Resistance: Grants protection against magical effects. Differently from the Resistance effect that merely rejects prana, this ability cancels the spells altogether.

A: Cancel spells of A-rank or below. In practice, the Servant is untouchable to modern Magi, so it would not be an exaggeration to title the Servant a "Magus Killer".

_Personal Skills_

Instinct: The power to "feel" the most favorable developments for oneself during battle.

A: Refined sixth sense is now closer to true precognition. Bonus effect of reducing by half the penalties caused by obstructed vision and hearing.

Prana Burst: The increase in performance caused by infusing one's weapons and body with magical energy and instantly expelling it. Simply put, recreating the effect of a jet burst by expending large amounts of prana.

A: A normal weapon that is not on the level of a Divine Mystery can be destroyed in one blow. Raises defense in several times.

Charisma: The natural talent to command an army. Increases the ability of allies during group battles. A rare talent, and an ability inherent to Servants of the Saver class. It is said that a rank of B in this skill is sufficient to lead a nation as its King.

B: Suitable for a King of a country.

_Noble Phantasms_

Invisible Air — Bounded Field of the Wind King

Rank: C

Type: Anti-Unit

A sheathe of wind which covers Excalibur and conceals its size and identity. To use Excalibur's strength, this Noble Phantasm must be dispelled. Can also be used to conceal other objects and decrease wind resistance.

Excalibur — Sword of Promised Victory

Rank: A++

Type: Anti-Fortress

The strongest and most majestic Holy Sword that symbolizes King Arthur and can be called the physical actualization of her ideals. The crystallization of the prayer named "glory" and the light of hope for all warriors on the battlefield. After gathering energy into the blade, can be used in a massive energy blast.

Avalon — The Everdistant Utopia

Rank: EX

Type: Barrier

The hallowed scabbard of Excalibur, the embodiment of the utopia which King Arthur seeks. It gives limited immortality to its wielder via constant regeneration, and grants immunity to the deterioration of aging. The effects it bestows truly isolate its wielder from the physical world, and it is considered to be on par with a True Magic.

* * *

><p><strong>I've noticed that a lot of authors don't put Saber's stats. While I know you can just go to the wiki and look them up, I still decided to post them! Yay! (Also, Gilgamesh would've killed me if I didn't give her data to him...)<strong>

**Thank you to Flagarach for providing beta services…**

**That's all this time,**

**Joki Boi out.**


	3. First Conflict

**It's that time again! Please don't expect this rather quick rate all the time.**

**Yes, you got it! The newest chapter of Fate: Zero Hope is here! Yay!**

**Chapter Posted: 12/3/2014  
><strong>

Chapter III: First Conflict

* * *

><p>(Nighttime, Fuyuki Forests)<p>

Kirei Kotomine observed the nighttime skyline of Fuyuki City from the edge of a cliff. It was quite a sight to behold, the developing city. Normally one would just take a few moments to admire such a sight, but he felt no such urge. "Assassin, it is time…"

The Servant of Shadows appeared behind him, but this time his (Kirei had been able to identify over the weeks that Assassin identified as male) appearance was vastly different. He looked just like the figure on the cover of the Assassin card. Rather lanky build, skull mask, bare chest.

"And so it begins," Assassin chuckled darkly.

"You know your mission. Infiltrate the Tohsaka Manor and eliminate Tohsaka Tokiomi."

"Yeah, sure. I'll eliminate him for you…" Assassin was new to the true plan, but they were just putting on a show for any potential eavesdropping familiars…

And with no more words, Assassin jumped into the trees, intent on his target…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Skies over Fuyuki City)

Saver sighed to herself. She was looking forward to just being able to fly around and enjoy herself before anything really intense started, but the rain had really picked up in intensity. It was hard to keep herself from drifting off course.

"Mou, maybe I should just head back. Doesn't look like anything good is to be had today…"

"Don't say that! I'm sure that something wonderful will happen!" The staff in Saver's hands, which was reddish-pink in color and had a star-shaped structure in the middle along with leaf-like appendages on the sides, was talking to her. "Hey, what's that!?"

Saver looked in the direction in which the staff's appendages pointed. If she looked very carefully, she could just see a figure making its way rapidly through the forest.

She followed after it as stealthily as she could. When she was above and behind it, keeping up with its speed, she managed to get a good look. "That looks just like the Assassin Card! This must be the Assassin Servant."

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Now, let's blast him!"

With that, Saver pointed the wand at the Assassin and shot a rather large pink blast at him.

The true first conflict of the Fourth Holy Grail War had begun.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(The Uryuu Alliance's Lair)

"Uryuu, listen to me! We are involved in a war here! This is not cool!" Caster felt like pulling her hair out. Uryuu just didn't seem to understand the scale of the conflict he found himself involved in, either getting distracted or interrupting her. 'Cool' was becoming one of her least favorite words…

Wraith was merely standing in the corner patiently, awaiting orders. The room they were in, for a sewer, was pretty nice, more like an unused closet than anything. It was dusty, but there was no sewage on the ground and it was pretty dry. All in all it was pretty cozy, though it seemed to be in a perpetual state of cold.

The ground shook for a moment. Caster paused in her ranting and looked up. "Hmmm. I do believe that that was magical in origin." She turned to the Wraith. "GAHHH! Not even a day to prepare!? Wraith! Go and investigate. You may engage if you so wish, but only with Servants, and no lethal force. Otherwise keep hidden. If prompted for a name, give no reply."

Caster was rather precise in her orders. Wraith bowed. "As you wish, Master." Not even a moment later she was gone without a trace.

"Why no lethal force?" This was from Uryuu. "Isn't that like a demon's job or something?"

"Because, it wouldn't do to kill an opponent so early, and without at least casting my own gaze upon them. I want this to be more than just a pragmatic combat of logic. I wish to enjoy myself before I actually begin the killing." She doubted she would face a threat which could actually put her life in peril.

"Wait," Uryuu seemed to suddenly grasp something. "You're saying that, in this Holy War thingy, you and other demons are going to go around a kill people and other demons!" Caster nodded. "Wow, and people die when they're killed!" He leaned in, a certain gleam in his eye. "Tell me more…"

Caster grinned. She had finally found a way to catch her Master's attention.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Fuyuki Forests)

"Goddammit." Assassin swore to himself. He was just supposed to go and fake his death over at Tohsaka's! He wasn't supposed to actually get into a real Servant battle in the middle of the woods. And he had covered quite some distance while still remaining far from the manor. He'd be unable to request aid from Tohsaka or Archer either, not that they'd help him anyway.

He had to run away. In a battle he was rather useless against anyone who knew what they were doing, and this crazy flying chick seemed to know what she was doing. He wasn't suited for direct combat. He'd only gain the advantage if his opponent was an utter incompetent or a normal human, or if he used one of his trump cards. But he'd be damned if he had to pull out all the stops in the very first conflict of the war, it would greatly damage his ego and pride. Hell, even a mage on the level of Tohsaka would be able to kill him if they knew what to do. He hated to admit it, but he was probably the weakest Servant in the entire war. He could admit to that much at least.

Saver touched down on the ground cautiously. She hadn't expected in the least to kill the man, she half-expected him to see it coming and attack her first, but she had miraculously been able to score a direct hit. She knew that her opponent had survived though, no Servant worth his salt would have been taken down that easily. She waited, on guard, for the dust cloud to clear, noting a few flashes of light and what sounded like lightning arcing from within. Yeah, he was totally alive.

What she wasn't expecting was for the Assassin to appear completely unscathed. He was breathing heavily, sure, but had nary a scratch on him. "You there, Assassin, identify yourself!"

"You… first…" The Servant of Shadows wheezed. Had she done internal damage instead?

"Ha! As if! That'd totally somehow end up with me getting killed. So I think not, thank you very much."

Assassin coughed. This one was snarky.

He suddenly motioned for escape to his left, the opponent following the motion, before revealing it as a feint and running off to the right. "Hey!" She shouted in outrage. This was good. He had only earned a few seconds, but he'd make good use of them. A few large energy blasts were thrown his way, but he managed to dodge all of them just barely and lost his tail. 'That Servant must have been Caster.' He decided to rest for a few moments before continuing on his objective.

Or he would have, if he weren't turned into shish-kebab. Countless knives seemed to just… phase into existence all around him before he was impaled. They were not there one moment, then there the next. It was simply unavoidable, there were so many knives. He lay face down in a heap, twitching.

From… somewhere, he noticed footsteps coming closer until he was kicked in the side, before twitching again. 'Fine,' he mentally decided. 'I'll do it now.' And with that, his body started deteriorating: his arms, his legs, and eventually his body, disappearing along with the arcing of lightning.

What nobody noticed was the tiny little fly that buzzed away…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(With Saver)

Saver was floating in the skies, watching the aftermath of Assassin's unfortunate encounter. It was rather gruesome, and hard to believe that a Servant had _died_ so early in the war.

She was also rather frightened of the newcomer. She couldn't even see how fast she had to have moved to set up all those throwing knives. They were just there, as if they had always been. Saver was preparing to engage Assassin once she found him again, but was glad she hadn't. 'A maid!' She mentally squealed before catching a hold of herself. She couldn't get carried away now…

'They're gone!' In less than the blink of an eye all of the knives which had been thrown by the new Servant (for what else could the newcomer be, to be able to kill Assassin so easily?) just disappeared. That was kinda creepy…

Saver's blood flowed cold and her skin lost what little remaining color it had left. The new Servant was staring straight at her. They made eye contact for a good ten seconds, before the new Servant just disappeared.

Saver looked around wildly, expecting to be attacked from any angle. When no such strike was forthcoming, she let herself relax before flying off slowly to her Master's home. She was still shaking in fear, as much as she hated to admit. She would need some time to calm down.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(With Assassin)

Assassin groaned to himself. First the flying chick, then the knife-chucker. This was supposed to be a simple night, just get killed by Archer and done.

'Let's get this over with.' He composed himself and his appearance before jumping over the gate surrounding the Tohsaka Manor, charging inside. He didn't care about disabling the bounded field; he was much too irritated to deal with such trivialities.

Noticing a pedestal in the middle of the courtyard, he smirked to himself. 'Too easy.' He danced rather nimbly around the practically invisible sensory lasers before reaching glowing red ruby in the middle.

He reached out his hand to grab it, but from nowhere a spear flew and stabbed straight through it. 'GOD-FUCKING-DAMMIT! What is with shit appearing from nowhere!' He looked to the source, a man with golden hair and armor and red eyes, brilliant lights shining about him. 'Why couldn't he have just shot me through the head and be done with it! This fucking hurts!' Oddly enough, his hand wasn't bleeding.

"You arrogant, disgusting piece of trash. How dare you enter my premises?"

Assassin just stared defiantly at the man, silent. Hopefully this would irritate the man into killing him faster.

"Defiant to the end, eh? I applaud your bravery. Be thankful for my mercy, for I shall give you a swift death."

A torrent of weapons of all different kinds—swords, spears, halberds, rapiers—flew from the golden lights surrounding the Servant. Assassin's body was torn asunder, but he uttered not a single squeak of fear or pain.

Archer stared down at Assassin's immolated body a few moments longer before turning away, the golden lights and all the weapons fired disappearing. Archer then took one more look over the premises before disappearing himself into his astral form. Various familiars sent by opposing Masters to observe the property took off to inform their summoners of Assassin's fall.

None stayed behind to see, from Assassin's body, a small insect form and take off into the air…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Within the Manor)

Tokiomi smiled to himself after Archer had disappeared. The plan had gone swimmingly, despite the Assassin summoned not being the one intended. Now all of the familiars which were undoubtedly around his property constantly observing him would report of Assassin's 'demise.' Then they would just have Assassin go off and gather information, perhaps even kill a Master or two… "Everything went just as planned, would you not say, Milord?"

Archer stood with his arms crossed, gazing out the window. "These games of yours Tokiomi, I grow tired of them. You are wasting my time…"

Tokiomi bowed to the powerful Servant. "While I am ever so grateful to you I must humbly request you to have a bit more patience, Milord, even though it is not my position to ask such a thing. The other Servants will make their moves soon, and you will be more-than-ready to face them."

Archer snorted. "Hmph. So be it. For now, I shall enjoy the splendors of my Garden. This age interests me."

Tokiomi looked up, a tad surprised. "Are you saying the modern era is to your liking?"

The King of Heroes laughed. It was a surprisingly light sound. "This time is unfathomably ugly. But still… it is fine in its own. Very well, Tokiomi. For now I shall partake in your tiny schemes and ploys for power. No matter how worthless this Grail is, I shall not allow any mongrel to even gaze upon it. All of the worlds treasures belong to me, and the Grail is to be considered no exception." He waved dismissively, dispersing into golden dust. "I'll leave the little details to you…"

Tokiomi sat down on his recliner, only moving after the King had fully dispersed. "To think that Gilgamesh would have such a high level of Independent Action." It irked him to have to constantly bow to the immensely powerful being, but he would do whatever it took to finally reach the Root.

"Kirei, I leave the rest to you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(The Uryuu Alliance's Lair)

"I am sorry Master; I have disobeyed your orders."

Uryuu jumped at the sudden appearance of Wraith. "God, stop doing that. It's funny once or twice, but it just gets annoying after a while. So not cool…"

"That was quick." Caster stared oddly at her Servant. "You disobeyed me? How so?"

"I unexpectedly killed the Servant Assassin. I used an opening volley of throwing knives on him when he was resting, and they managed to kill him." She kneeled. "I will accept any punishment deemed necessary for this oversight."

Wraith was expecting many things, but she was not expecting her Master to just shrug her shoulders flippantly. "Well, normally I'd be upset, but if he was killed just by an opening volley than I guess he wasn't much in the first place. Probably wouldn't have been any fun at all… Was there anything else?"

Wraith stood up from her kneeling position. "I also encountered another Servant, a female wearing lots of pink. Her and Assassin's altercation is what alerted you to the conflict. I let her be before returning to you."

"Hmm. Anything you were able to ascertain about this newcomer? Abilities? Perhaps class? Even guesses would be fine."

Wraith stood silent a few moments. "If I did not already know of you, I would call her a Caster. She had the ability to fly, what looked like some sort of magical staff, and could shoot out large energy beams."

"Ah, so they can't be Caster or Assassin for obvious reasons. They probably aren't a Berserker or a Saber. Maybe not even a Lancer. I'd have to say Rider or Archer, but who can really tell… good job Wraith. You should rest up."

Wraith didn't know what to think of her Master. On one hand she could be entirely ruthless and cruel, other times showing signs of compassion. At least she showed kindness to her servants.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Fuyuki Church)

"My Servant has been lost." Kirei Kotomine stood before his father, both with completely business-like expressions, as he recited his lines. "I forfeit my rights as a Master and cannot continue within the Holy Grail War. In accordance with the treaty I, Kirei Kotomine, ask for the Church's protection and shelter."

Risei stood silent a few moments. "In my role as the Moderator of the Fourth Holy Grail War I, Risei Kotomine, accept your request and shall protect you. Enter in peace, my child." So saying, Risei moved from his position blocking the door and motioned for his son to enter. The interior was simple, looking like a rather poor church, but it had served its duty well as a location for worship.

As the doors closed, Kirei deigned to speak. "Father, are any other Masters keeping an eye on the church?" The sound echoed through the empty hall.

Risei chuckled confidently. "Of course not. This church is neutral ground; any who would defy that rule will be blacklisted by the Holy Church." Risei turned to his son, a look of curiosity on his face. "Tell me, was Assassin not supposed to arrive before you?"

"I've been here the whole time, geezer." Looking up in surprise, Risei noticed Assassin sitting on the rafters above. His form was back to what he was summoned looking like, though his bodysuit was now revealing his midriff and the muscles in his arms looked to be bulging out.

He jumped down, landing without a sound. "I doubt any who watched noticed anything. In their minds I'm totally dead. Hell, even if they see me around they won't recognize me. This is gonna be perfect!"

"Though I did hear some rumblings before you were supposed to get to the manor. Tell me, Assassin, what happened."

Here Assassin scowled. "I was ambushed. Probably by a Caster or something. She flew and shot large energy blasts, don't know what else she could be. Wore lots of pink too. We spoke for a bit before I managed to escape." Kirei made sure to note this information in his head; it would doubtless be useful later. He found it a tad ironic that the Assassin would be ambushed. "Then I was killed."

This gave Kirei pause. "I thought you managed to escape? You died?" He knew that his Servant could die multiple times and be fine, but it was still a feat to land a fatal blow on a Servant.

"Yeah. Tons of knives came out of nowhere and skewered me. I played dead, so I don't know what the person looked like, but they were definitely a female. Bitch." Despite his regeneration it was still painful to die. "If it weren't for me I would've sworn she was the Assassin. Perhaps an Archer, but I don't know how much the Grail considers throwing knives to be a feat of marksmanship, plus we already got Goldy."

Risei looked troubled. "Perhaps it is one of the extra Servants." Assassin looked lost. "All of the seven Servants were summoned, but an additional three were added near the end. Perhaps this one is a member of these unknown classes."

Assassin groaned to himself. "Great, more people I have to get rid of. Goddammit."

"Three extra? I thought it was two…" This time it came from Kirei.

"It was, but right after you left the tenth was summoned. I hope that there will be no more, but who knows?"

This troubled Kirei. Who knew how many more Servants there were going to be…

Risei walked off, deeper into the church. "I leave the rest to you, my son."

Kirei turned to Assassin. "You know what to do."

"Yeah, yeah. Spy on everyone, stay hidden, blah blah blah." Needless to say, Assassin didn't have much respect for his Master. "Empty prick."

Kirei watched Assassin disappear into the church. 'Empty? Did he just call me empty? What could he mean…?'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Einzbern Castle)

"It appears as if Assassin has been defeated." Maiya gave the report on what her familiar had told her to Kiritsugu. "About ten minutes ago. Kirei Kotomine has since taken shelter in the church."

Kiritsugu hummed to himself. Despite it being 'against the rules,' he had decided to have Maiya place one of her familiars outside of the church, but to make sure that it was completely hidden. He knew that the Moderator was a relative of the most dangerous Master, so they could perhaps be plotting something.

Normally a Master would be relieved at the passing of such a threat. But Kiritsugu felt no such relief. He believed not for a second that Assassin was dead or that Kirei would not be somehow involved in the future.

"What can you tell me about Assassin's 'death'? How did he die?"

"As far as Assassins go he looked just like one but seemed to be rather ineffective, just barging through the bounded field and most likely alerting Tohsaka and his Servant. I would say he was overconfident or just didn't know any better. Tohsaka's Servant fired what looked like many different kinds of weapons at Assassin, which shredded through his body. My familiar could not see the enemy Servant from its angle. Also, none of my familiars were able to successfully observe the altercation which occurred shortly before the attack on the Tohsaka Manor. Any that managed to actually get nearby were killed in an unknown manner."

Kiritsugu thought to himself for a few moments. While it was unfortunate that they would not be able to observe the altercation, it would most likely not have been of much grand importance. It was most likely just an early engagement to scale the abilities of the opposition, as many of the early battles would most likely be. They would gain more opportunities for intel gathering later.

"Keep your familiar there and specifically give it instructions to keep an eye out for Kirei Kotomine. He could become reaffiliated with the war later, wouldn't want to have him surprise us with a reappearance." Maiya nodded, leaving the room to do as instructed.

Irisviel was outside, overhearing the conversation. "Hear that Saber? Assassin has already been defeated."

Saber smiled softly. "Yes, Irisviel, this is good news. Now I need not worry about the Assassin going and killing you or Kiritsugu from the shadows. I do not believe that an Assassin would agree to terms of a duel." She wasn't very eager to encounter the Assassin class Servant. They were pretty much the opposite of honorable. Come to think of it, an Assassin would probably be the perfect Servant for her Master.

Irisviel smiled. She leaned into Kiritsugu's room and called out to him. "Kiritsugu, we're going to be going out now!" She and Saber would be out observing the surroundings, looking for any additional spots that could be used for hiding or locations for battle. Also, if any opponents saw them and were able to identify them—able to somehow tell Saber was a Servant or recognizing Irisviel as an obvious Einzbern—it would still work in their favor, having the opponent believe that Irisviel was the Master. They would stay out until near midnight, where if nothing happened they would return to the base. This strategy would continue until events changed.

"Have fun," Kiritsugu called back. While he did not like Saber, he had enough knowledge of her abilities to believe that she would be able to at least protect Irisviel. And he and Maiya would not be complacent during the day either, tailing the pair to see if anyone was watching them. Counter-spying, if you would.

A few minutes after Irisviel and Saber left, Maiya returned. She was carrying two packs, one of which she gave to Kiritsugu. "Your weapon." Kiritsugu nodded and turned before they both headed out…

They had a busy day ahead.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Mackenzie Residence)

"Yes!" Waver cheered to himself while Rider was playing some video game on the television. It had a rather tiny boxer going against bigger boxers over and over, and had a pretty neat training sequence to boot.

Waver shook his head. He was getting much to distracted recently. Deciding to focus on what his rodent familiar had informed him of, he turned to Rider. "It looks like Assassin's been defeated already!"

"Hmmm." She seemed too much into her game to pay attention to him. Waver was just going to drop it, but decided to steel his nerves and force the Hero to listen to him. He was the Master here, and he needed to establish his command.

So saying, Waver walked behind the TV and unplugged it from the wall. "Hey! Asshole, I was about to beat Mike Tyson! You stupid or something?!"

"No, I'm not stupid. Listen to me." Waver then blanched. What the hell did he just do?! Now he was gonna be on the Servant's shit list. "Uh, well, what I mean to say—"

"Okay, what's so important? This better be good." Maybe she had misjudged Waver. He wasn't _completely_ spineless. Sure, he went back to being frightened by her but that was really only natural. She was a Heroic Spirit while he was just a mediocre magus. They were complete leagues apart.

Still though, that didn't mean she was going to let him walk all over her. He would have to prove himself before she'd truly think of him as a superior.

"I was saying, Assassin's dead." It took all Waver had not to stutter that sentence out. She took a few moments of silence to consider the implications.

"I suppose that that is pretty important. All things considered this is actually a boon; I'm pretty much pure offense in battle and most likely would be unable to protect you in case of a sudden sneak attack."

Waver took a few moments to consider this. So she was more of an offensive spirit, and would be unable to protect him. That meant that he would either have to hide during battle, an idea which while smart didn't really sit with him, or they would have to finish their fights quickly.

"So then," Rider snapped him out of his thoughts. "What are you looking to find the Grail for?"

Waver sighed a moment, wondering if he should reveal his desire. Deciding that since she was fighting for him she had the right to know, he elaborated on his wish. "What I want isn't much. I just seek for people to respect me. And you?" Waver turned to Rider, wondering what she should seek.

He wasn't expecting her to just be staring at him dumbfounded. "That's… it…?" Waver cautiously nodded. "You entered this life-or-death struggle, knowing you could and probably _would_ die, committed virtually an offense against the world in reviving one long dead… for respect? What a stupid idea!"

Waver started to shake. Though this time not in fear. No, now he was angry. 'She… she…'

Rider continued on her tirade. "That so damn idiotic. God, to be summoned by such an idiot! I might as well kill myself. That's so selfish! So shallow! So _dumb_!" She turned to Waver. "Though I guess you can't expect much more from a little man like you…"

Waver was starting to boil over in his anger. 'She acts as if she knows everything about me! She doesn't understand me at all! It was a huge damn mistake getting involved in this fucking war!' He looked down to the sigils on his hand. 'Rider, by the power of this Command Seal…'

"You don't even need the Grail for that!" Waver paused. "I mean, all you really have to do is win—no, just survive. 'I survived the Holy Grail War!' I'm sure just that would be enough to gain tons of respect in your communities. 'I _won_ the Holy Grail War!' Now that'll turn some heads!"

'Does that mean… she thinks I can actually do this?' Waver looked down to Rider, then at the floor in shame. "I'm sorry, Rider. I almost did something horrible…"

Rider smiled a bit, unseen to him. She had seen what he was going to do; it probably took a lot to calm down from it. "No biggie, just don't do it again. So whaddaya say? In the coming days, how about you think of something really worth wishing for."

Waver nodded softly. "So then," Rider brought the conversation to a new topic. "What's on the agenda for today?"

"Well, today I was thinking of going out and looking around the city. Get familiar with the enemy, you know? And perhaps encounter an enemy or two."

Rider considered herself surprised. Waver didn't seem at all frightened of the possibility of getting involved in a big battle. Though maybe the reality hadn't set in for him yet…

"Actually, speaking of combat," Waver started. "How do I know that you'll be able to protect me?"

"You wish to see my abilities? Well… let's not do that here. It's kinda destructive, and costs a lot of prana, plus using it will show everyone where we are." Waver was a bit surprised. Did she have some uber-destructive power? "You shouldn't doubt my abilities; just know that I'll be able to crush the competition when push comes to shove." At least she seemed confident. "Actually, can't you just look up my own stats and stuff? Do that…"

Waver felt a bit silly. "Oh yeah…"

Well, at least it seemed like they gotten a bit closer. Or something.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Homurahara Academy)

"And then you take the cube root of the reciprocal…"

Taiga sighed, bored. The last few days she just hadn't been herself. She was just eternally exhausted. She felt like a part of her was just… _missing_ after the night before. She was just lethargy incarnate.

"Ms. Fujimura?" Oh, it seemed like the teacher was talking to her. "Are you alright?" Hmmm. Seems like others were noticing too. It was rather different from her normal behavior; of course she'd receive some concern. "Would you perhaps like to go home? You don't seem well."

A few minutes later, Taiga was on the way home, before she happened to receive this urge. So, following this urge, she walked herself into the bigger city.

She looked down onto her right hand. Some symbols had seemed to appear overnight, and no matter how much she scrubbed at them, they wouldn't disappear. When her parents or friends had asked about them she had just called them temporary tattoos. She didn't really know why she didn't tell them that they were not normal, but she felt this urge to keep it hidden. Now she had a little mystery in her life. She'd figure out just what had happened.

She just walked aimlessly, heedless of the rain, not noticing it getting darker and darker nor her heading over the bridge and near the beach area…

"Get down!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Alleys of Fuyuki)

"Kiritsugu. That girl."

"I know." Kiritsugu was concerned. This girl was just randomly, aimlessly walking around. This wasn't what concerned him though…

The Command Seals on her hand though, those piqued his interest.

From his understanding and that of the Einzberns which he had consulted for information regarding the war, there were only seven Masters. Seven Servants. Seven sets of Command Seals. That was how it was supposed to go.

There were only two possibilities Kiritsugu could rationalize:

1) A Master had already been killed and this girl was chosen to be the replacement, or

2) This war was irregular.

He would normally be inclined to go with the first option. After all, Assassin had died off early, why not another Master? It was completely plausible.

But that begged the question: why this girl? Why not Kotomine Kirei, a former Master? Normally those who had their Servant eliminated would be the first choice for backup Master. Of course, she could have been selected before Kirei had lost Assassin. There was really no way to confirm either way except to consult this new Master's Servant, but he doubted his presence would be met kindly or with total honesty.

He knew that if he were in the position of a Servant, he wouldn't reveal everything, even to his Master.

Of course, the Servant could be of a 'higher morality,' such as the grand King of Knights Saber. Someone such as that wouldn't hesitate to give a truthful account unless influenced by their own Master.

"Kiritsugu? Orders?"

Kiritsugu shook his head a few moments. He couldn't keep considering possibilities and counter-possibilities. It would just get him nowhere. He sighed, looking around his area. It was a nice day today. It shimmered a little, but that only improved the twilight created by the setting sun. It would be a shame to shed blood on this day. Despite this though, nobody was around. It did seem to be a poorer area.

Plus, the Master was a child. A young girl, probably not even realizing what the sigils on her hands meant. She kept looking down at them with confusion every few minutes as they had been trailing her. Could he really kill an innocent? A child at that?

"I'm in position…" With Maiya's notification, he closed his eyes. His course of action had been determined long ago.

"Fire. Aim to kill."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(With Taiga)

"Get down!"

Taiga heard these words, but was unable to really react in any significant manner. All that happened was that she registered the words and then felt like a car had crashed into her, pushing her into one of the side alleys.

She was disoriented, but aware enough to note the feeling of someone tugging on her arm and running, pulling Taiga along for the ride.

She didn't really know how long they ran. Could have been ten seconds, ten minutes, ten hours. She felt neither fatigue nor an aching in her muscles. Just a feeling of necessary escapism.

By the time they eventually stopped, Taiga was vomiting rather profusely on the ground. Once her stomach contents were removed she dry heaved for what must have been at least five minutes. Then she quickly fell unconscious, fortunately not in her own vomit.

'Oh no,' Saver thought to herself rather frantically. 'Was even the little bit of activity I committed last night too much?' She didn't realize just how much stress a Servant summoning and then it engaging in a battle, no matter how short, would be. 'Even my current materialization is hurting her.'

Acting quickly, Saver ducked into the closest 'safe place' she could find, before situating Taiga in a relatively comfortable position and dematerialized herself. Unfortunately for her, this 'safe place' was the sewer. Also unfortunate was that the sewer was already claimed by another Master/Servant pair.

She would just stand silently over her weak Master, keeping guard but in her astral form. Any threat that would appear, she would do her best to neutralize it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(The Uryuu Alliance's Lair)

Caster, Uyruu and Wraith were all just kinda lazing around. There wasn't really much they wanted to do. Well, they could go out and scout for the enemy, but Caster (and by extension Wraith) wasn't particularly feeling it. Uryuu was still learning the basics behind the Heaven's Feel, so Caster was just slowly explaining to him the process. At least as far as she could understand, based on the information provided by the Grail upon materialization.

Caster suddenly seized up. "I'm glad I set up the territory here…" She had begun setting up the night before both her territory which originated from her Demonic Defender of the State and her Temple. It seemed like they would use this area as a base for the coming days. She would have preferred a nicer place, but it was better than nothing.

She had sensed the entry of a Servant and Master into her territory. Fortunately, due to the expansive but narrow nature of the sewer system, her territory could expand out further. It eventually covered nearly the entirety of the sewer systems, which in retrospect was actually rather fortunate, as Servants and Masters were likely to use them for discrete travel or for emergency shelter. These sewers were surprisingly nice compared to the stereotypical norm.

"Wraith," she began. The Servant's Servant stood at attention, waiting for orders. Uryuu too looked a tad curious. "We have an intruder. Travel down the eastern tunnel, it should take you directly to them. Master and Servant. Kill them. If necessary retreat, we do not want you to reveal too many of your tricks."

Wraith bowed. "As you wish, Master." A moment later she was gone.

Uryuu looked curious at Caster's order. "Didn't you tell her before not to kill them? Didn't you want to have fun or something?"

"While I did, Assassin's easy death showed me that the enemies may not be all too great and challenging warriors. If I meet them in battle I shall meet them in battle, but if they fall early then they just weren't cut out for the Hero gig."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Fuyuki Docks)

Kayneth stood next to Lancer. The docks were clear of all people, courtesy of a hasty bounded field he had established. "It is now nighttime. Give the signal. You know what to do."

Lancer shooed Kayneth away. "Yeah yeah, Kayneth, I got this. Make sure to keep yourself safe, I won't be able to protect you if I'm engaged in mortal combat."

Kayneth, while irritated that she wouldn't refer to him as Master (in person at least; she would refer to him as such in the presence of enemies), also understood that it was just not in her personality to be very respectful. He could either get very irritated with it or move past it and continue on with the conflict.

Fortunately Assassin had been eliminated early, removing the risk of the Servant of Shadows killing him while Lancer engaged whatever Servant would appear. Kayneth was confident that he could take on any opposing Master that would challenge him, if any would at all.

Now he just had to wait. Despite his confidence, he was anxious and could feel the beginnings of perspiration. This was the type of conflict a magus only dreamed of, and he was about to take part.

He wondered how long he would have to wait.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Fuyuki Bridge)

Waver and Rider were just walking around, observing the sights. Fuyuki really was a nice-looking town. It was a bit of a shame that it would be the location for a bloody battle, but that was neither here nor there.

Rider herself had refused to go around in her spirit form. When Waver voiced his concern about her attire, she simply changed into a yellow sundress. She still had the red nodes in her hair. When Waver questioned her about them, she told him in no uncertain terms that she would not remove them in any circumstance.

All in all, they just looked like a pair of foreigners enjoying the sites.

Rider stopped, pushing herself close to Waver to whisper to him. "A Servant is letting out pretty much a flare showing off where they are. Most likely a challenge."

Waver nodded. "What do you suggest we do?"

"Maybe not engage ourselves. See if anyone else replies. Decide whether or not to engage later."

Waver nodded again. With that, they began the long walk from the bridge to the docks.

'This is it,' Waver thought. 'It's starting.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Fuyuki Docks)

Saber slowly walked down the docks, Irisviel behind her. She had sensed the challenge, and felt it right with her honor to respond. So now she was heading off to encounter whichever Servant it would be.

She could tell that this was an attempt by the enemy to determine the battlefield. 'A smart move, at the very least it prevents innocents from prying into this war.' Saber stopped her movement. "Servant, come out! I know you are here! I have answered your challenge!"

Silence for a few moments. "Heh. It would be rude of me not to greet a guest." A young girl appeared, jumping down from a shipping container.

Saber observed her opponent-to-be for a few moments. Noting her attire, her stance, her build, her weapon… "I see. Greetings, Servant Lancer." The large spear in her hand gave away her class designation.

"Eh, I guess it's really hard to conceal your class when you wield a spear, eh? Yeah, I'm Lancer. And you two are the first Master/Servant pair to accept my invitation." Saber nodded. "Unfortunately I wish we could have met under better circumstances, but I have been ordered to kill you."

"I see…" Saber smiled grimly. Irisviel noted a change in her posture and the tightening of her shoulders. "However…" Here her suit disappeared, only to be replaced by her armor and combat attire, "I will not be so simply defeated, as you may find."

Lancer gave her a pointed look. "Are you sure you're not a Puella Magi? That transformation sequence…" She shook her head. "Oh well."

Saber gripped her sword tightly, concealed in the Invisible Air. She stared at Lancer, who as well was in a ready position.

Irisviel thought to herself, 'So, now the war begins.'

Without any warning Lancer and Saber charged at each other.

Their weapons clashed, and the battle began.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"It's starting. We need to increase our pace!"

"Alright."

Waver felt the perspiration on his head. On his arms. Everywhere. Normally, he would associate this with being nervous, but…

He was _excited_.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiritsugu looked down from his vantage point. It seemed like Saber and Lancer's combat session was about to begin.

"Let's see how you perform, King of Knights." No matter how much he disliked her, he was still interested in seeing his Servant fight against another. A battle between Heroes of ages long past would be quite the spectacle.

"Maiya, I'll travel around the west end, you take the east. We'll try to find and isolate Lancer's Master. If you find him report to me."

"Roger."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Tokiomi, I will be going… I believe it is time to announce the presence of the King."

Before Tokiomi could even utter a reply, Archer was off.

Tokiomi sighed. 'Oh well, even if they do know it's Gilgamesh they won't particularly know how to beat him. Nobody can beat him.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Assassin flew over the battlefield, in the form of a crow.

'This should be fun.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Avenger opened his eyes. 'I believe that my prana stores are sufficient enough.' He looked over to the corpse of his Master. 'I don't need him anymore. I should dispose of the body.'

He had felt them with his rain. It seemed like many Servants and Masters were congregating. 'Time to announce my presence I suppose.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Master, should we involve ourselves?"

Kariya hummed a few moments. "Go, I will stay back here. Most likely other Masters will be there, and I will most likely be unable to fight them." Even if they didn't outclass him, it would put unnecessary strain on his circuits. He needed to use as little as he could to save it for Berserker. "If Archer's there, he takes priority. Try to remove him first." His father had 'accidentally' let slip the class of Tohsaka's Servant. "If not, go wild."

Berserker smiled. "All right! I'm off!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Sewers of Fuyuki)

Saver tensed, and risked entering her physical form. She sensed something approaching. She could feel the atmosphere change.

Suddenly, before her stood the maid. The one from the night before. "Prepare yourself." Then a huge amount of knives came flying at her…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Throne of Heroes)

Zelretch and Angra Mainyu shared a look. Zelretch had a wide smile on his face and Angra Mainyu couldn't help but smirk a bit.

"Things are getting interesting."

"Indeed, Seihai-kun. I believe that it was worth it waiting for this."

"I apologize if the wait's been unbearable. I know I am not the most hospitable or talkative of hosts."

"It's fine. Now, let's see how this all turns out…"

* * *

><p><span>Omake: Alternate Servant (Caster)<span>

"Are you a demon?" Uryuu asked. This was so damn cool! He really summoned something.

The 'something' was a man, looking to be in his early twenties, with not too many descriptive features. He wore a black button-up shirt and brown khaki pants, along with dress shoes. His eyes and hair were brown, and the best way to describe his hairstyle would be 'windswept.' He was also reading from a small black book, with English words written on the cover.

"I'm no demon. I'm much greater than a demon. You may call me _GOD_!"

Uryuu's eyes widened a bit. He summoned _God_? So, did that mean God loved what he did, just like he thought! "God! Do you like the work which I have done!?"

"Work?" God looked about. He seemed to take in the sight of the now-dead family and the bound child.

"Yes, my work! My art! All of my killings of men, women, children! Do you find them pleasing?"

God hummed to himself, before pulling out a pen. "And what did you say your name was?"

"Uryuu Ryuunosuke, sir!"

"Uryuu Ryuunosuke." God said his name while writing it in that small book. He seemed to wait a few more seconds before speaking again. "You will go to the police station, confess to your crimes, and be shot, on national TV. I hope you've had a good life." The book closed.

Uryuu was confused… then terrified as he realized what was said. "Wait!" But then his body locked up and he started slowly walking out of the room.

The Servant seemed pleased at his work, before leaving the house himself. He ignored the bound boy. 'It's time for me to truly create my new world!'

Servant Caster, known in life as Light Yagami, headed into the streets of Fuyuki. The world would weep at what had been brought forth.

* * *

><p><span>Teach Us! Gil-sensei!<span>

"Caster Light Yagami?" Gil-sensei looked to the author. "That seems like it'd be pretty interesting. Why didn't you do it?"

"Well, it was the first choice, but I quickly scrapped it because either there would be way too much deus ex machina, he'd be too overpowered, or he'd be too nerfed. The current Caster was actually the first Servant that I fully decided on."

"Wait… does that include me!? You didn't pick me first? I'm one of the canon characters!" Gil-sensei was outraged.

"Actually, you were the last Servant I decided on. I was originally going to pick another Archer, but decided against it nearly last-minute. You want to know who? Well, just wait for the Archer Omake!"

"Ummm… look at the time! I gotta go! I think you should go to teaching your class. Bye!" The Author fled.

"Hmph." The class was nearly empty. He had scared many of the students away after quelling their rebellion. "Not much of a class to teach. Nevertheless, I shall go on."

"Next time the fight at the docks will occur, and the King will make his grand entrance! I'd look forward to His great appearance! Also, to answer a Reviewer's question, Rider is Original."

Joki Boi returned. "Oh, Gil-sensei, I've noticed you little Student problem. And so I'll implement a new system to give you worthy pupils to teach."

"Oh, you, Author. Well, what is it?"

"As important characters in the story die, I'll add them to your class roster. Will that work out? Please note that you won't have very many Students for a while, it should be quite some time until we get a lot of big deaths."

Gil-sensei hummed a few moments. "Very well. All of you students! Get out!" The few students who had persevered left, crying. It seemed like all of their hard work was for naught.

"Also," Joki began. "I'll introduce a new Student now! He's not in the story, but he's a bit special. He's the beta reader. His name's Flagarach."

"Like the Noble Phantasm?"

"No, it's Irish for 'The Answerer'." Flagarach answered, somewhat annoyed by the cliché remark. "Anyway, this immortal will join your class now, Gil-sensei," Flagarach happily announced. "If you want to know how I became immortal, then you should read my story W—"

"We are not interested, Mongrel."

"Hey!"

"Sit down. Now." Gil furiously said while shooting some spear through Flagarach's spleen.

"Yes sir..."

"Mongrels! Be honored, for you receive my First Original Lesson! In Gold! Today we will cover the subject of My Saber's true Noble Phantasms, because that foolish author dared to forget some!"

"I… I did?" The Author was obviously confused. He could've sworn he checked the wiki…

"Yes, you did. Fortunately I have a copy in the Gate, so I will demonstrate it for you!" Gil-sensei ignored the Author's frantic cries of 'No!' He pulled a book and what looked like a small silver egg from his vault.

He read from the book:

"...And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O LORD, bless this Thy hand grenade that with it Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits, in Thy mercy." And the LORD did grin and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu..."

Joki motioned him onward. "Skip a bit, brother."

"...And the LORD spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.""

Gil-sensei held the Hand Grenade high. "One!"

Joki snarled. "Wait, why is there a fucking Monty Python reference in here? I'm not copying TIM!"

"Two!"

Flagarach spoke: "Death by Monty Python jokes? Meh, I've had worse..."

"Five!"

Joki sighed. "Three, sir!"

"Three!" So saying, Gil-sensei pulled the pin and lobbed the Grenade into the sky. Yuki Kajiura's epic choral music played for the short time it floated through the sky.

It blew up, and everyone blew up with it.

Joki's disembodied head spoke. "V-V-V-V… That's all… folks…"


	4. Assembly

**Woop Woop! Another update! This one took a little longer than before, but oh well…**

**Chapter Posted: 12/25/2014 (Merry Christmas!)**

Chapter IV: Assembly

* * *

><p>(Docks)<p>

Sword and spear clashed again and again, Lancer and Saber coming together in the deadly dance of death. Lancer's face was adorned with a cocky smirk, though if one looked carefully they would be able to see signs of frustration and irritation. Saber herself had a look of serene calm, giving no sign of being in an intense battle aside from her eyes, glinting with steely determination.

Irisviel watched from the sidelines, slightly in awe. She knew that Saber would be strong and skilled, but seeing her in action was a whole different experience. She was also aware that this early in the battle the two were most likely testing the skills of the other, but even so the speeds and skills which the Servants used were incredible.

'Dammit!' Lancer swore in her head. She and Saber were merely staking out each other, trying to determine the opponent's strengths and skills in comparison to their own, and Lancer would begrudgingly admit that, in the arts of armed combat at least, Saber was her superior.

She was no slouch with her spear herself, but Saber definitely knew how to handle herself in mortal combat. "Heh," she chuckled aloud. "This would be a lot easier without that invisible sword of yours…"

Saber briefly glanced down to her grand blade, concealed as it was with Invisible Air. She thoughtlessly parried a thrust aimed to disembowel her. "Oh? And what makes you believe it's a sword? Perhaps I wield a club or axe."

But her attempt at reverse psychology would not dissuade Lancer. "Yeah, no. I know a sword when I feel one, even if it's invisible. You're wielding a sword. I'm gonna guess you're the Saber." Her opponent opened her mouth to respond, but Lancer beat her to the punch. "Yeah, yeah. You don't need to say anything. I'll keep my theories; you can keep your own."

Saber's mouth thinned, the determined frown once more taking its place. Even she had to admit, it would be a longshot to have an enemy Servant, a Heroic Spirit, confuse a sword with an axe/club. She decided to take the battle up a notch.

Lancer dodged an attack meant to cut open her stomach before thrusting at Saber's head with bone-crushing force. Saber dodged at the last moment, only having a few hairs cut off instead. Normally, such a maneuver would leave Lancer open to a counterattack, but she knew that Saber was not fast enough to capitalize on such an opportunity. She had been comparing their speeds during the battle, and while Saber was most definitely quick, she was just a tad slower than Lancer. This was made up for though with Saber's strength, she was the stronger of the two.

Saber smirked unseen at the position her foe was in. She too had come to the conclusion that she was slower than the opponent, but that was only to be expected when facing a Lancer, traditionally the fastest of Servants. Of course, she had something that could even the playing field, even if only temporarily.

Lancer quickly jerked herself to the side, jumping away from combat, observing her opponent warily. It was brief, very much so, but Saber was just a tad bit faster than herself, and had used that brief interval to dash to her side and almost give her a deep stab in the gut.

Almost, of course, was the key word. Lancer had, at the last moment, jumped away and maneuvered herself in a way that instead of being disemboweled she would just receive a nasty gash on her right arm.

Saber frowned. She had hoped to possibly end the battle with such a move, but it would not be so. It was rather wishful thinking to defeat an enemy so early in the war. And now Lancer would be wary of any subsequent uses of Prana Burst. At least she had managed to draw first blood.

Lancer stood cautiously, considering her options. It seemed her opponent had some technique that would allow her to temporarily outspeed her. She had gotten overconfident with her speed, but she would not make the same mistake again. She shifted her spear into her left hand and let her right arm hang limply. She was ambidextrous, and it would give the illusion that Saber had inflicted more damage than she truly had.

This whole exchange had taken no more than two minutes. But to those involved, it had seemed like at least a half-hour.

"Heh," Lancer laughed, panting deeply. "You definitely aren't a pushover. Congratulations on first blood…" A grin that was more than a little bloodthirsty took its place on her face. "This is going to be really fun."

A more serene look came over Saber. "Thank you, Lancer. I too would like to say that it is an honor to engage you in combat. If only our first meeting could have been under better circumstances."

Lancer seemed to sober up a little. "Hey, don't get all sappy on me. This is what it is. No use crying over it. The past is the past. You can't change it; only accept it and move on…"

Lancer didn't know what it was, but it seemed like her words struck a nerve with her opponent. She seemed to stand a bit tighter, and her eyes thinned. Then she charged.

Lancer and Saber's weapons clashed together. For a moment it seemed they were even, but Saber's superior strength won out. She pushed the spear aside, placing Lancer in an incredibly vulnerable position. She could see the panic in Lancer's eyes, knowing that she was about to be run through. Using Prana Burst to increase her strength and speed, she prepared to bore through Lancer's chest.

Of course, she would have succeeded had not an explosion in between them launched each other away from their location.

Lancer was launched into a storage crate, heavily denting it. She could tell she'd be sore later. 'Thank goodness,' she thought, silently giving gratitude to whoever had separated the two opponents. 'She was aiming right for where I was keeping my Soul Gem.'

Saber was not nearly as pleased. She had her opponent dead-to-rights. The look in her eyes let her know. But she had also berated herself. She had gained tunnel vision in finishing off her foe, and neglected to keep her senses open in the case that another would try to interrupt their duel. She would not make the same mistake again.

"Be glad that I have honored you with my presence, mongrels." A haughty male voice called out. Lancer and Saber looked over to the one who would interrupt their fight. It was a fair-skinned man wearing golden armor, with similarly-colored hair. His eyes were red, and he seemed to just radiate an aura of inherent superiority. It seemed not arrogant, merely as if it were stating a fact that this one was stronger. He was also standing atop a streetlamp's arch with impeccable balance for some reason.

Saber did not like the golden man, but would keep such thoughts to herself. Lancer seemed to hold a similar opinion, but was more vocal about it. "Hey, asshole, who the hell are you? Can't you see we're busy here?"

The man's face, for a single instant, seemed to be the embodiment of fury. But that moment passed, and the previous look took over his face. "Normally I would kill one for such an insult, but only this once shall I give you the opportunity to make amends for your great disrespect. You know not who you speak to after all. Bow yourself in supplication, and you will have my forgiveness."

Saber could see Lancer's body shaking, as if it knew not what to do. Even if she wasn't the one being addressed, she could feel the power in those words. 'This is like my Charisma ability, only much higher.'

Lancer had to actively keep herself from putting herself in a prone position. 'What insane power!' If merely his words could have a Heroic Spirit at war with themselves. She gritted her teeth, before speaking again. "And who, if I may ask, demands such an act of a hero?"

The man, instead of being angry, seemed almost pleased at her question. He grinned, 'I am a King, and as such should humor my subjects. It is only proper that they know who it is that they follow.' An incredibly haughty look took over his face. "In this war, I have been given the Servant designation of Archer. But that is a droll name to possess. Instead, you may know of me as Gilgamesh, King of Heroes!"

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Kiritsugu almost dropped his gun as he darted around the docks, searching for his target. He kept looking over to see how the battle was progressing every fifteen seconds or so, only taking an instant to ascertain the situation. He took a bit more time when it seemed that Saber would kill Lancer, but it was interrupted.

He could tell that the new figure was the Servant of the Tohsaka, as even if he didn't get a good look at the Servant, the golden aura and voice were the same. Then it had so callously and casually revealed its class and even true identity! That was a massive break in standard tactics, one which would normally easily have been taken advantage of.

But then the identity registered with his mind, and that was what caused his attention to lapse. Gilgamesh, King of Heroes. One of, if not THE oldest legend in human history. His was one of the many stories or myths which Kiritsugu had studied in preparation. No matter he had revealed his identity so simply; he had no reason to fear for his safety. Just based off of reputation alone, he would probably be one of the strongest possible heroes to be summoned. Tohsaka was smart. He knew that it would be difficult to defeat the Archer, even with King Arthur on his side. Nothing less than Excalibur would be necessary to defeat him.

He sighed to himself. 'Oh well, just another obstacle to be overcome.'

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(Sewers)

'This is insane!' Saver kept swinging Ruby in front of herself, trying desperately to keep all the projectiles away. She was able to deflect those aimed for vital zones, but she was still getting small cuts to her extremities. She could tell that these small knives contained large amounts of power, but fortunately for her her Physical Resistance kept the damage lower than it otherwise would have been, though she was still getting damaged.

'Sapphire!' With this mental call, another staff appeared. This one looked very similar to the other, the only noticeable difference being that Sapphire was blue in color to Ruby's red.

Sapphire also spoke in a much more business-like tone compared to Ruby. "What would you like, Illya-sama?" She wasn't summoned into Saver's hand, so she was needed for something other than combat.

"Take my Master," She gestured to the still-sleeping Taiga. "And get her out of here. This is way too dangerous for her."

Sapphire seemed to… bow? "As you wish, Illya-sama." So saying, Sapphire took Taiga and, despite her small size, picked her up and rapidly floated away with her, to some other location in the sewers.

"Ruby, have you managed to ascertain the nature of the opponent's technique?" Saver continued to bat away those knives which came too close for comfort with Ruby's bladed form. How many of these things did the opponent have? She had to have thrown at least five-hundred by now…

Looking to the ground, Saver noticed something odd. Normally, with this many projectiles, she would have to watch her footing. But on the ground, there were very few knives. They were disappearing…

"That's it!" Saver was excited, but spoke quietly enough that only Ruby could hear. "She has a finite amount of knives, they just keep returning to her somehow. Maybe if we break them all, she'll be weaponless, and we can beat her."

Ruby spoke for the first time in the battle. She was uncharacteristically serious right now, devoting her functions to combat. "I am sorry, but I cannot ascertain what type of technique she is using to move so quickly. This means that it would trace its roots to some form of True Magic." Her creator, the Kaleidoscope, had installed the capability to identify all forms of Thaumaturgy with enough exposure, which excluded True Magic.

"Oh man," Saver groaned to herself. She had a sinking feeling since the battle began, and the presence of a True Magic just amplified it. "This is probably like the early part in a video game, where you face a boss you can't beat. The hopeless boss battle."

"Stop referencing tropes and keep dodging!"

Saver continued to deflect the attacks for some time, until she noticed something. It felt like she was getting more and more efficient at deflecting the attacks as the battle continued on. It had only been at most three minutes, but she was getting hit less and less.

"Ruby, it's a pattern." She would shoot out small red knives, before throwing larger blue knives, and she would need to deflect some of them because she was not fast enough to dodge them all. She was grasping the pattern, and slowly adapting to this. 'If they keep attacking in patterns over and over, then this battle will be in the bag!'

She wasn't being all too dormant herself. She kept shooting out small rays whenever she could through Ruby. Many of them were hitting the opponent, though it seemed that so far the damage dealt was negligible. Though she could see signs that the enemy was getting more and more tired over time.

With Wraith, she was having more trouble than expected. Of course, her opponent _was_ a Servant. She shouldn't have underestimated her, but still… This was the one that was fighting Assassin before she took care of him herself. It seemed like they would fight sooner than later.

Also, it seemed like her opponent was gaining a bead on her pattern. Best to switch things up now. But first…

"BGM: Maid and Pocket Watch of Blood."

Saver started. What was this…? Some sort of Noble Phantasm? All that she could tell was different was that there was some sort of song playing in the background. It sounded kind of sinister, but was also very pretty.

"Strange Art: Misdirection."

Saver had gotten used to the pattern. Had gotten comfortable. That was a mistake. Suddenly, Wraith teleported to the side of the room, launching many of the small red knives in all directions. Then she ported to the other side of the room, launching streams of the blue knives at her, before quickly porting and firing more of the red knives. It was in such a manner as to have the red knives push her into the way of the blue knives or vice-versa.

She was unprepared for the barrage, and was hit almost directly by many of the blue knives. These were thrown with much more force than those previous, and some even embedded themselves into her arms and legs.

'Darn it!' She thought. 'I got too overconfident. This is a Servant; of course they're not going to be a simple one-trick pony.' Outwardly, "Ruby, prepare yourself. We're going to have a much more powerful attack this time."

"Roger!" She still kept shooting her smaller attacks, but was slowly charging up for a much larger attack.

"Hmmm," Wraith hummed to herself. This opponent of hers seemed to adapt rather quickly, though with those knives in her limbs she was definitely slowed down. "Perhaps I should increase the level beyond fifth midboss…"

"Lunar Clock: Luna—!"

She stopped her intonation, detecting a much larger attack from her opponent. She braced herself, preparing to dodge whatever it was, but soon realized that the effort would be futile.

Saver brought Ruby back, before swinging it with incredible force in Wraith's direction. "RAAAAAAAAAGH!" A massive pink burst of energy came out of the staff, prepared to encompass Wraith's form.

Wraith was just staring at the energy beam. "Master Spark?" So distracted was she that she didn't even try to dodge the attack. It encompassed her form, but she yelled out not even once.

Saver sighed to herself. It seemed like she had defeated… "Life signs detected. The opponent is still alive." Ruby snapped her out of her delirium. Of course it wouldn't be that simple.

She debated to herself for a few moments, before coming to a conclusion. This was a battle which she would not finish today. They'd have to decide this another time.

Some time later, Wraith stood up and canceled the BGM. That attack was deceptively powerful, but she was used to being bombarded with large energy blasts. It would take much more than one of those to put her down. She observed the surroundings. It seemed like the only part which received damage was the wall behind her, which had a huge hole punched into it, allowing access to another tunnel. She took a few moments to collect her knives, not bothering to stop time when there wasn't a direct enemy in the area.

She debated giving chase, but the decision was taken from her. "Wraith, report."

Wraith turned to her Master, who was herself surveying the area. "Master, most of the surrounding damage was caused by the intruder, not me." Caster gestured for her to continue on, so she gave as full a report to the vampire as she could.

"I see…" Caster nodded to herself. "While it's regrettable that you were unable to destroy her or her Master, it is good that we are able to ascertain more of the enemy's capabilities. Though now they do know some of your capabilities. I guess they didn't use so much of their techniques because they had a civilian Master."

"Would you like me to give chase, Master?"

She dismissed the option. "No. We have something better to do. It seems like the other Servants are engaging in mass combat without us. I seek to rectify this issue…"

"And Uryuu?"

"He's taken care of. I know that he is safe, nobody can find where he is right now…"

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(Docks)

"Gilgamesh?" Saber was in shock. She had heard of the man, one of the first and most powerful legends of humanity. The demigod, he who ruled over humanity and sought eternal life. He who, in the end, could not gain that which he seeks, though still lived on, content.

A legend among legends. That was the undeniable presence which stood before them. But… "I am sorry, King of Heroes." Saber shook her head. "My dream, my wish, means too much to me for me to give it up so easily. We will meet the other on the field of battle; there shall we decide who is superior, more deserving of the Grail."

Archer's eyes narrowed at her, before he gave a dismissive snort. Then his gaze turned to Lancer. She was picking at her ear. "Sorry, pal. Never heard of you."

Saber and Archer stared at her flatly for a few moments. Of all the things to say…

Archer growled to himself. "I have given you this offer, and you have refused. When you lie on your knees, begging for your lives and mercy, I shall remind you of this time; I shall remind you of the offer which you have squandered. And you shall die weeping…" Multiple large lights shined behind him, and Saber and Lancer prepared themselves for whatever would happen.

Out of the lights, weapons of many differing sizes and builds appeared. Long deadly spears, grand swords, heavy axes and more. And each one was an individual Noble Phantasm.

"What!?" Saber exclaimed. "How do you have so many?!"

"Die, trash!"

With that, Archer launched the first volley.

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From his hidden position, Berserker observed the battle between Lancer and Saber. Their prowess was rather incredible, and their abilities exceptional. Still, he believed that if push came to shove, he would turn out superior in a one-on-one between either one.

He had prepared to leave when it looked like Lancer was going to die, but that stopped when Archer appeared and introduced himself. He remembered Kariya's instructions, and so waited until such a time that he would be able to get a good sneak attack on him.

Observing Archer's fighting style, he was glad that he was not in the position of Saber or Lancer. Archer was just staying stationary, sending waves of Noble Phantasms out to try and skewer either one. It was a simple yet effective strategy. Saber and Lancer had already been exerting themselves from their battle before, and the projectiles flew not slowly. They had to put in visible effort to dodge each of the attacks, and it could be seen that each were getting small cuts when they couldn't escape in time.

Berserker decided to intervene now. While it may have been more tactically sound to wait until both Saber and Lancer were finished off to attack, it would also be wise to attack while Archer was distracted, and then take out the weakened Servants. That would be half of the war done in a night!

Berserker jumped out, prana collected into his fist. He prepared to ambush the golden Servant and pummel his head in, but it was not to be. Archer jumped up off of the street lamp moments earlier, leaving Berserker to merely punch and destroy the perch which he had stood on.

Saber and Lancer both were rather grateful for the reprieve. They didn't know how long they could keep surviving the constant barrage of Noble Phantasms, even though they didn't seem to be incredibly powerful individually. As the battle stood right now, the newcomer was between them and Archer, and that would be perfectly fine for them right now.

"Who would dare to make me stand on the same ground as the common folk? Such an injustice is punishable by death!" Archer was no longer in the mood to ask fealty. He was out for blood. He reached deeper into the Gate, and now called out C-ranked Phantasms. They would be sufficient in taking out the pest…

"Oh my," Berserker spoke to himself. He saw the mass of weapons flying in his direction, and dodged them in every which way he could manage, narrowly avoiding getting gutted at more than one turn. There seemed to be no end to the legendary collection of blades.

Lancer looked at Saber out of the corner of her eye, who seemed to be breathing rather deeply and trying to recover. She knew that even if she attacked at that moment, Saber would be able to defend herself. But who ever said she would need to attack the Servant…

Irisviel was trying to look as small as she possibly could. The battle occurring around her was just unbelievably intense. She felt like if a single one of the legends gathered had turned an eye to her, she'd just go up in smoke and disappear. Looking over at Saber, a small pit of dread formed in her gut as she saw Lancer staring _right at her_ out of the corner of her eyes.

This dread was justified, as Lancer quickly broke off and stormed straight at her. In only an instant, she was right before her, spear prepared to gore her in the heart.

Fortunately for the homunculus, it was not to be. Saber had reacted quickly, and using Prana Burst had managed to catch right up with Lancer. Irisviel's safety was her highest priority, so while she was in a prime position to kill Lancer, it would still result in the thrusting spear going through Irisviel. Instead, she used her blade to strike at the shaft of the spear with incredible force, averting its head.

Lancer saw that she wouldn't hit perfectly home, but maneuvered her spear in a way that it's base would still strike into Irisviel's unprotected form.

For Irisviel, this whole exchange lasted not even a second, leaving her with no time to react; no time to even close her eyes or brace herself. The shaft landed flush against her ribcage, sending her flying into one of the many storage containers which littered the area, denting it greatly and letting off a great clanging noise. She stayed glued to the container for a few moments, before falling to the ground.

Now, Irisviel von Einzbern was not a normal human. In fact, it may be a more accurate summation to say that she was not a human at all. She was, first and foremost, a homunculus, created by the Einzberns to act as a Lesser Grail.

And so, she was not nearly as flimsy as a human; she may have had the same bodily structure, but she was not as weak as the average person by a long shot. On top of this, she was a magus. She may not have been a great magus; not even a good magus, considering her lack of any true kind of advanced Mystery aside from small applications of wire manipulations. But she was a magus, and she knew the basics rather well, which included Reinforcement.

With her special nature and near-constant application of Reinforcement in the hostile environment, Irisviel was what many mundane humans would call a juggernaut if they had to face her. She would probably even be able to survive being struck by a speeding car with only superficial damage.

Suffice it to say, though, that despite all of this Irisviel was in complete agony.

Lancer hit like a truck—more powerful than a truck, much more powerful. She would be surprised if the combination of Lancer's strike and her hitting the shipping crate hadn't completely destroyed her ribcage.

Vacantly examining the interior structure of her body, she noted the various injuries she had accrued: every single one of the bones in her arms and legs were broken in some form; her right hand was crushed completely; her right kneecap had _popped out_; her spine had shattered in many places, various vertebrae liquidizing; she had suffered extensive organ damage and lots of internal bleeding, along with a punctured lung; various blood vessels, including one in her left eye, had popped; and the complete right front half of her ribcage, the side which Lancer had struck flush, had been _powdered_ into less-than-fragments.

Irisviel would have cried out in pain, but it seemed the effort it took to do so caused the holes in her lung to widen.

Needless to say, she was in the most pain she had ever experienced in her lifetime; in the most pain that many other people combined hadn't experienced in their lifetimes. In that single instant, her existence was synonymous with pain and suffering.

Yet she was alive, even though more than a small part of her wished that she wasn't. She vaguely heard clanging sounds around her—it seemed her eardrums had also popped—and saw flashes of light, but lacked the coherency necessary to make heads or tails of the situation.

She would have to thank a copious amount of luck that she wasn't merely a stain on the wall. Luck and Avalon.

At first she had felt a bit guilty about taking Saber's precious sheath without her knowledge or consent, not even informing her that they possessed it. But she would come to appreciate the reasons behind such actions in very quick order.

She had never really had the need to really be healed by Avalon before, despite possessing the Noble Phantasm within her body for quite some time. She had just never been extensively injured before. Sure, she had gained small cuts and bruises now and then, but those were barely noticeable and definitely would not compare to the task which it now had before it.

Irisviel didn't really know how it would feel to repair such intense damage quickly. She had asked Saber maybe once or twice how her sheath had functioned, but she had always gained a nostalgic far-off look in her eye and a small smile, before wishing forlornly that her scabbard was not lost. Irisviel had always stopped her questioning and given Saber her own time to reflect; she was too softhearted to continue with such interrogations.

Kiritsugu too did not know exactly how the process would occur, merely accepting it as a healing tool which would give his wife an added layer of safety. He hadn't questioned Saber with his more forceful and blunt methods because he just plain didn't enjoy her company. He let Irisviel handle her.

One thing which Irisviel was not expecting, though, was that it would be so gut-wrenchingly _painful_. It wasn't a soothing warmth or a comforting embrace. She felt as every single bone was put back in place and snapped together; as all the spilt internal blood was channeled back into the mending veins; the powdered bits of bone reassembling back together in her chest.

While her body slowly reassembled itself, Irisviel finally let go of herself. Her consciousness faded, and her body slumped weightless on the ground. Only occasional twitches let on the fact that she was still alive.

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Kiritsugu, for a moment, felt his heart stop dead in his chest.

His breathing calmed down quickly though. He saw that Irisviel was still alive; it was nearly impossible for her to die unless she was beheaded or dismembered, and even then she might have survived—he didn't know the full restrictions on Avalon's healing ability.

But seeing her slam into that crate and the looks and tremors of agony which punched through her system filled him with a terrible fear, the likes of which he had not experienced for many a year.

He continued his search, but now with even more ferocity. He was furious, but it was in a way where he felt completely calm rather than frothing at the mouth. In fact, his anger only seemed to heighten his senses and perceptions beyond nearly anything he had experienced. His rages were incredibly rare, but they only seemed to increase his focus and deadliness.

He was angry at Lancer, for striking his wife with such incredible force. He was angry at Saber, for failing to protect her completely.

But most importantly he was angry at himself. He had placed too much stock in both his and the opposing Servant. He thought that Saber would be able to completely protect her, as she had sworn on her 'knight's honor.' He would not make such a mistake again.

He was also angry at Lancer for striking against Irisviel, despite it admittedly being the more tactically sound choice of action. She was a member of one of the three knight classes, and so should have had more honor than to attack a Master so. It was ironic; he was hating a Hero for not having a strong moral code while that was the exact same reason he loathed his own. Lancer seemed to be an opportunist. In all honesty, she would have been much better suited to being his own Servant than the knightly Saber, despite perhaps being a tad weaker.

"Kiritsugu." Maiya's voice came through the small communication device he carried in his ear, snapping him out of his thoughts. He was not idle though during his interior monologue, continuing to check and examine the surrounding areas. "I have determined an area with a higher prana concentration; likely the location of Lancer's Master. An area roughly twenty meters to the north-northeast of the Servant altercation."

Kiritsugu hummed to himself. He was glad many of his opponents would neglect many uses technology would have in this war. Such as thermal scoping being able to determine areas of higher prana concentration.

His use of technology against thaumaturgy also held another bit of significance. It would leave much of his prana stores untouched, and so they could be used to fuel Saber and her more costly techniques. She had been frequently using her Prana Burst ability it seemed, and he was starting to feel fatigue. He would have to wrap this up sooner rather than later. "Roger. I'll be heading there now. Cover me."

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All movement in the area stopped when the clang of Irisviel colliding with the shipping container reverberated throughout the area. Archer's onslaught of weaponry halted, and he seemed to observe it all with an… amused(?) expression for a few moments, seemingly waiting for what would happen next, his fury temporarily forgotten. The green Servant just kept his guarded position, gazing warily at everyone he could.

Saber blurred into motion, her invisible sword whistling through the sky at incredible speeds, faster than she had swung it any time previously in the fight, only for it to be deflected at the last moment by Lancer's spear.

Lancer was trying to back up to a more advantageous position, but Saber would have none of that. Saber channeled a Prana Burst to her speed, dashing at Lancer before she would gain a chance to recover.

Saber was near infuriated, though only the most visually acute would be able to tell by her expression alone. She had failed in one of the very few tasks which she had sworn to her Master that she would accomplish without fail.

Irisviel had been struck. Directly struck by a Servant. She had no idea how her pretend Master had survived, as it was common knowledge that even the weakest of Servants could crush bones casually, and Lancer was far from the weakest of Servants. Had Irisviel died, Saber never would have been able to forgive herself.

Hell, even now she knew not if she could find it in her to forgive herself. The kind woman who had been like a beam of sunshine in her world colored bleak by her Master and his ways was most likely crippled for life by such a strike, and she had only herself to blame.

"Have you no honor?" She near-roared at Lancer, her sword moving like a blur even to the enemy Servant's eyes as she was barely able to block the strikes. Lancer was now forced to focus all she could on defense, using both of her arms to support her spear, though she could not tell how long she could stand against the relentless onslaught. "You call yourself a member of the knight classes?!"

"Hey, hey," Lancer tried to placate Saber, to no avail. Her arms shook as a particularly vicious Prana Burst-enhanced blow had directly connected with the center of the spear. "I never once called myself a knight or one with honor or anything like that; I merely gave my class name. That doesn't mean I have to be all good like you. It's your own damn fault for assuming such a thing in the first place."

They seemed to stalemate for a moment. Saber's invisible sword was again striking at the spear over Lancer's head. They both held their positions there for what felt like minutes, but was in reality moments. "My apologies for my assumptions. It seems I have misjudged your character." An air of certainty seemed to radiate from Saber for a few moments. "I will give you the time to rethink your actions back on the Throne." Saber dug her feet in a bit more firmly into the concrete of the ground.

Breathing deeply, Saber first used Prana Burst to weaken Lancer's stance. Then, collecting her power into her sword, she unleashed an intense torrent of condensed air. "Strike Air!"

Lancer didn't know what had hit her. One second she was locked in deadly combat with Saber, the next she was sent flying. Flying in a way oddly reminiscent of how she had sent the albino flying earlier, even crashing similarly into a storage container. The only big difference was that she went straight _through_ the container. And the next three behind it.

Saber composed herself, quickly reforming the unleashed winds into a cover for her sword. It wouldn't do to unleash its glory so early into the war. She held no doubts of Lancer's survival, but also knew that it was impossible to escape from such a close and powerful strike unscathed.

And unscathed Lancer was not. She had many small cuts on her limbs, and many of her ribs had cracked. She was bleeding above her right eye, cutting off her visibility, and as she stood herself up she hissed. It seemed she had suffered damage to her left foot, enough so that every time she made a movement with it she would feel a sharp pain up into her spine.

She was given no time for introspection, thought, or action though, as she noted a presence on her right side. Her blind side. She felt the air move, knowing that something was coming, but couldn't react in time and took the full force of the blow.

As she flew back through the hole that her body had made in the containers, she noted her assailant's appearance. They were female, and wore a rather tight red body suit, along with a more subdued shade of hair. The weapon it seemed she had been hit with was a red double-helical bident spear, as long as its wielder was tall.

The enemy had a rather vicious grin on their face, before moving to follow the unwilling projectile.

Lancer repressed a groan. 'This is just not my day.'

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Kayneth felt a small bit of worry travel through him. As far as he could tell, it seemed that Lancer was doing less-than-well in her battles. He knew that this was more of a scouting mission than it was intended to be a final confrontation, and Lancer knew this as well. But at this rate he didn't know if she would completely survive.

He was currently keeping himself hidden inside one of the many storage containers that had littered the docks. He had wanted to stay out and observe the conflict directly, but Lancer had dissuaded him from such a course of action, bringing up that this was not meant to be a complete confrontation. He had reluctantly agreed, feeling some small blow to his magus pride, and was sitting tight, observing the goings-on of the battle through Lancer's eyes.

That was not to say that he was leaving himself completely defenseless. First of all, he was incredibly talented in his own right; he possessed no doubts that he could challenge any other Master at, at worst, equal footing. He was also keeping himself well-hidden, making no unnecessary movements that would echo throughout the area; he doubted that any other Masters would actually be actively searching for him though.

Finally, he had his trump card prepared about him. His powerful mercury Mystic Code, Volumen Hydragyrum. He had spread out small tendrils of it all over the surrounding areas, small enough that they could only be seen if you were looking for them, as a web to detect anyone who would intrude into the area, unlikely as it was to occur. With it active, he was assured his victory in any battle, as it could quickly reform back together and act as a simultaneous offense and defense.

He was a tad bit sore that she had decided to attack the Master, but they had already come to an accord involving such matters. It was a necessary evil on their way to success, especially seeing the powers that the Saber and Archer had.

Kayneth was drawn out of his thoughts, feeling what could be compared to a wire snap along his nerves. That was the telltale sign, his trigger that someone had touched a part of the Volumen Hydragyrum. Someone was trying to find him, or was just too unfortunate to be in the area. The Bounded Field he had erected beforehand would have kept the mundane away, so odds are this was a Master.

He grinned. It appeared that it was time to make a move. Concentrating, he had his Mystic Code jump into action.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Saber was expecting Lancer to emerge from the hole, perhaps exchange a few words and then have them continue their battle. She was not expecting her to be sent flying back through the hole.

Following behind Lancer was another female, undoubtedly a Servant. What was curious was the weapon she wielded. If she had not already fought with Lancer herself, Saber would have called the newcomer a Lancer-class Servant instead. At the very least, she had to have been eligible for the class, even if she wasn't summoned into it.

"Hi there, you can call me Rider." She grinned rather viciously at the amassed group. "And it seems I'm gonna be crashing this little party."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Moments Earlier)

"Okay, you stay here while I go kick all of their asses." Rider was definitely confident, maybe a bit too much. He had definitely heard one of them call themselves Gilgamesh, which meant they were probably facing THAT Gilgamesh, which Waver knew he would not enjoy much. He also heard the swift combat which had occurred, making it likely that at the least there were three enemy Servants in there.

"Wait, wait. We need to think about this first. How are you even going to enter, just walk right in?" At her eager nod he repressed the urge to facepalm. "And also, I'm not going to be going with you. I'm just gonna stay back here and let you have all the fun; no way am I getting involved in this whole conflict thing."

"Sheesh. I thought we'd already been over this. Yes, yes, you're gonna stay back here and—" She was cut off by a rather loud clanging noise, along with what sounded like tearing metal. Then Lancer came flying nearly right below their position in a heap.

Rider looked down for a few moments, over to Waver, then grinned a large grin. Before Waver could even begin to formulate a word, Rider jumped down nearly right next to the slowly recovering Lancer and got into a baseball batter's stance. Waver had seen the sport on TV a few times; it was supposed to be rather popular, he just never really found himself too interested.

Rider was in, as far as he could tell, perfect form and some large spear thing appeared out of nowhere into her hands. Lancer couldn't react in time, though he could tell that she had seen it coming. Rider sent her flying back the way she came, before jumping after her.

Waver had to strain his ears, but he could hear Rider's little introduction to the competition. "Hi there, you can call me Rider. And it seems I'm going to be crashing this little party."

This time Waver did facepalm.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was very tense. Actually, that would be quite the understatement, but it would also be the easiest way to convey the feeling, despite the lack of intense loquacious prose.

Everyone was just staring each other down (or, in Lancer's case, slowly getting themselves back up uttering "why me" and "worst intro ever" a few times), waiting to see who would make the first move.

Surprisingly, Archer was the one to speak first. "Hmph. This irks me." He gestured grandly to the surrounding Servants. "I come here to greet my subjects, and they all turn out to be women," he turned his eyes to Berserker, barely-restrained wrath visible in his gaze, "or foolish children." He shook his head, before letting out a small chuckle. "Hardly a worthy group to serve the One True King."

Archer opened his portals behind him once again, aiming straight at the mongrels, this time bringing out the big guns. That is, B- and A-ranked Phantasms. Conveniently Berserker was in the front. "I guess I'll just have to put down some mutts."

Everyone prepared themselves to deal with another barrage, but the process was interrupted by an incredibly loud squawk. Looking into the sky, they all noticed a rather massive figure approaching through the sky. "What an ugly creature," Archer muttered before turning his Gate in the direction of the offending species, "To roam above me in the heavens."

The other Servants had to agree, loath as many of them were to admit it—Archer had not exactly endeared any of them with his personality. It was large and its body green, along with three legs and wings sticking oddly from its body. It had a large prominent jagged pale yellow beak, along with what looked like black spikes through its body. Its most striking feature though, would be its odd purple-ringed eyes.

It flew swiftly into the area, before circling around above them. Saber could have sworn that it had also eaten a lone crow which had been circling the area. She could make out a figure on its back. It was male, with fair skin and orange hair which was held up into a ponytail along with some headband in front of his hairline. He had eyes the same as the creature he rode, various black piercings in his face, and wore a high-collared black cloak with red cloud designs on it.

Saber was rather confused, though she kept such thoughts from being visible on her face. She had no idea where this mystery Servant (for there was nothing else he could have been, she rationalized) could be placed in the class system. She would have to say Rider, but the recently-arrived redhead had dissuaded that notion. Of course, she could have been lying…

Archer sent his weapons flying at the… bird(?). It proved surprisingly nimble, dodging nearly every single Phantasm fired, and those that did hit only got in grazing blows. It continued to circle around above them, before letting out from its backside what looked like giant… eggs.

Only one of the eggs actually landed near them, falling on top of a nearby shipping container, surprisingly landing in one piece. And then it proceeded to explode rather spectacularly.

Yes… it just layed eggs to attack them. And they were bombs. Saber could truthfully rate this incredibly highly as far as odd fights went.

Nonetheless, she was rather at a loss. She had very few abilities which would assist in defeating the creature, and those that she did possess she would much rather prefer not having to use so early in the war. On top of this, she needed to continue in her protection of Irisviel, especially considering the questionable honor of those present.

She tightened her grip on her sword. She had the feeling that the night had only just begun.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(Elsewhere)

Saver was near-panicking. It seemed like not even a full day after her summoning she would die.

Currently Taiga was barely clinging to consciousness, writhing in pain on the floor. It seemed like she really just couldn't handle the strain that supporting a Servant and having them participate in combat would have on a normal person. A mundane adult may have been able to handle a Servant, though they would probably be significantly weakened without a separate power source.

But Taiga wasn't even an adult, and her circuits which would never be used normally had been still developing and had not been stressed even once in her life.

All things considered, it was probably a miracle that she had survived this long. Saver could only think of one option to keep herself materialized, but she was not willing to take the souls of innocents. It seemed that her run was at its end…

"If I may, Illya-sama," Sapphire interjected, floating above the writhing Master. "I have an idea. Perhaps we can temporarily bestow upon her some powers?"

Saver contemplated for a moment, before deciding that it was the best shot she had for continued survival. "Alright, how shall we do this? Sapphire, you're the one who's going to have to go with her."

"The only thing we need now is her love power, which may be difficult to attain in these circumstances."

"Ah," Saver nodded to herself. "I know how we're going to do that. You just work on the other stuff."

Sapphire gave as close to a nod as a staff could give. She slowly maneuvered herself, before finally ending up clasped in Taiga's hand. Taiga was coughing up blood now, and Sapphire had collected some into her appendage.

"Certified master by blood, contract activated by contact. And the key start: A maiden's love power…" Sapphire motioned to Saver to make her move.

Saver leaned right next to Taiga's ear, before whispering. "Taiga-chan, wake up right now, and you can get all the meat you want."

"All checked out without a problem," Sapphire intoned.

Taiga jumped up from her position, seemingly full of energy now. Nobody would have been able to tell that she had been just on her deathbed. "MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT!"

"Now, shall we add the final touches?" A small aura formed around Taiga. "Please tell me your name."

Taiga gave the strange voice no thought, not even noting where she was or the strange staff gripped in her hand. "TAAAAAAAAAAAAAIGA FUJIMURAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Master registered." Sapphire spoke calmly, even as a much larger, one which would be perceivable even by the mundane, appeared about Taiga. "I'm at your service."

Saver was in thought during most of this process. Even with her activities and Taiga's weak circuits, she shouldn't have been reduced to such a powerless position so quickly. It would have eventually happened, but not as soon. Something else was going on… she just couldn't place a finger on it.

Looking over at her Master, she smiled. "Magical Girl Taiga Fujimura."

She stared forward for a few more seconds.

"My god, what have I done!?"

* * *

><p><span>Omake: Alternate Servant (Lancer)<span>

Kayneth felt rather irritated. He had lost his initial catalyst, and so now had to resort to a secondary one which he knew would be inferior. It was unfortunate, but the truth. He had felt the need to, for some reason, summon his Servant on the roof with Sola-Ui nearby. He remembered something about ambiance or dramatic effect, but that was beside the point.

Out of the summoning circle stood a man. He wore a long white robe along with hakama pants, with a sword hilt sticking visibly out. He was thin and tall, with silver hair and fair skin. He had a wide smile on his face, along with eyes set in slits.

"Hi there, it looks like you've summoned me as Servant Lancer. How are you doing?"

His way of talking irked Kayneth. It was as if he was mocking him, yet still retained his complete politeness. He looked to the blade in Lancer's pants. Noticing this, Lancer pulled it out.

"You wield a sword." Kayneth felt the need to point this out. What kind of Lancer would have a sword?

"Oh yes, I do." Lancer looked (did he? He didn't open his eyes…) down fondly at his blade. "But only in its sealed state." He held his blade in an odd position, before taking aim at a particularly stupid-looking crow which had been flying around their building. "Ikorose, Shinso (Shoot to Kill, God Spear)."

The blade in his hands rapidly extended before stabbing into the bird. It gave an indignant squawk before falling rapidly to the ground, seeming to glare straight at them.

"See this?" Lancer seemed proud of himself. "God Spear. Still doubt that I'm a Lancer?"

Kayneth just stared at him for a few moments, before gesturing out to the still-extended blade. "Yes, that is just a very long sword, not a lance."

Lancer sighed a bit. "Fine. Bankai: Kamishini no Yari (Final Release: God-Killing Spear)." The sword seemed to not change all too much visually, but gave off an increased aura of power. "See, 'God-Killing Spear.' This is totally a lance. See?"

Kayneth was getting tired of these paltry tricks. "No, it's still a long sword, just longer than it was in the other stupid form. Now where the hell is your lance?"

Lancer seemed to stare straight through him for a few moments. His sword retracted to its normal size, before he pointed it straight at his Master's heart. "Korose, Kamishini no Yari (Kill, God-Killing Spear)."

A massive hole appeared in Kayneth's chest. He died.

Lancer sighed in relief. "Boy am I glad that he's gone. He was rather annoying." He turned towards Sola-Ui, who had stayed quiet during the entire conversation and was now looking at him in barely-restrained fear. "And how about you? Have something to say about my spear, maybe-dead-woman-maybe-Master?"

Sola-Ui gulped deeply. She had just seen her fiancée die. She didn't really love him, but still, it was shocking to see someone killed off so heartlessly. And now the same may happen to her!

So she decided to do what would most assuredly have her survive in the end. That is, kiss his ass. "I-It's a very nice spear! Really nice! A spear among spears!"

Lancer let all the power from his swo—spear drop, and returned it back to its normal size before sheathing it back in his hakama. "Good girl. Now, let's go find some enemies."

With that Lancer, known in death as Gin Ichimaru, embarked on a quest in the Holy Grail War.

If there's one thing which could be said about him, it's that his spear really is magnificent.

* * *

><p><span>Teach Us! Gil-Sensei!<span>

Gilgamesh just stared at Joki for a few moments. "Gin Ichimaru as a Lancer? That's really stretching it…"

"Well, he could also be a Saber, Assassin, or Archer I suppose, but this one was deemed to be the most amusing. Besides, it's an Omake Servant. Why does it need to be logical?"

"And let's not forget that this omake was completely stolen from yours truly," Flagarach sneered. "Shouldn't a king punish thieves, O Gilgamesh?"

"Very well. Judgment should be delivered." Blades flew through the air, and each found their target in some part of Flagarach's body.

"W…Why…" And here is Flagarach death quote #2.

"Let us return to important matters to discuss: my performance in the battle was ridiculous!" Gilgamesh ejaculated.

"Wait… what?" Gil was rather dumbfounded by his actions. "I… what?"

"Oh yeah. You ejaculated. It's another term for 'exclaimed.'"

"Ignoring this," Gil rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I feel like your way of expressing my performance was lacking. You should have described my grandeur and magnificence in more arousing splendor!"

Flagarach also interjected here maybe if you feel like it.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Joki blew Gil off with a simple wave of the hand. Then he turned to the readers. "Alright guys, I'm sorry. I was not expecting the dock scene to end up being so long, but I didn't want to just post a chapter that was like 15,000+ words. So you get this. Next chapter should definitely wrap up the docks scene, and perhaps go into the aftermath for it. Here's hoping everything turns out well for all those involved. Hey guys, who do you think will win the war altogether?"

Flagarach spoke up, sweating nervously: "I'm placing bets on our greatest AUO-sama, and I'm totally not choosing him because he will otherwise kill me."

Gilgamesh smirked. "I myself shall deem Archer as the War's victor."

Joki smiled cheekily. "I'll go with *****."

Gil gave him an odd look. "Spoilers I suppose. It wouldn't do for the playwright to give the ending at the beginning now would it? At least not for a story like this." He turned a more curious eye onto the Author. "And why did it take so much longer to update this time than in previous chapters?"

"Well, you see, life stuff happened. But besides that, I had this big old fight scene to work on. I've really never written such a big or long fight scene, so if you Readers could tell me what you thought of it, it would be greatly appreciated." He bowed towards them.

"Well, anyways," Gil spoke up. "That'll be all this time. I guess you will all have to wait patiently for the next installment in this story. Oh well, we all know that I will win in the end."

"We have a small problem, guys." Flagarach had his phone out and looked at the bad message on it, sweat pouring from every pore in his body.

"What is it?" Joki asked.

"Well, it seems that some of the problems that happened in one of my stories, 'Wha—'"

"Get to the point before I skewer you with more weapons," Gilgamesh commanded angrily.

"We are all going to die at the end of every chapter."

"Even when there are only four sentences left?"

"Yep." Flagarach confirmed it, and that was not a good sign.

"Goddammit," Gilgamesh sighed.

Then they all fell over dead, somehow. Probably Omake!Caster's revenge for not being included.

_Fin._


End file.
